By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
A one-day trial period is not going to solve the issue of pedestrians trying to safely cross South Sandusky Avenue at Warren and Rensselaer streets.
The Bucyrus Traffic Commission determined Wednesday morning that monitoring the changes to the traffic lights at the two streets for one day was not enough evidence to permanently change the timing, especially as Fire Chief Jay Keller and Police Chief Dave Koepke had different experiences.
Keller stated he monitored pedestrian traffic around 11:30 a.m. on the day of the trial period, stationing himself at the former Romanoff’s Jewelry store and later at the Tattoo Factory. During that time, Keller said, he saw people crossing Warren and Rensselaer streets without a problem, but never saw anyone attempting to cross Sandusky Avenue.
His report differed greatly from Koepke’s experience monitoring those streets later that same day. Though Koepke was not in attendance for the meeting, Keller noted that his police counterpart viewed numerous people crossing Sandusky Avenue with plenty of time to cross.
Keller did not see any safety issue during the one-day trial period, but cautioned Mayor Jeff Reser about issues with traffic. Rather than the traffic lights on Sandusky Avenue at the Warren and Rensselaer street intersections changing at the same time, Keller observed that the pattern was staggered and often caused traffic to back up at times.
Despite not seeing any immediate pedestrian issues, Keller felt that there was not enough evidence to decide one way or the other on the matter and recommended testing it again.
The committee approved another seven-day trial period, this time extending the north-south lights to 45 seconds and keeping the east-west lights at 15 seconds. Reser also emphasized the importance of syncing the lights at Rensselaer and Warren back up.
The committee also approved adding four parking spaces at the courthouse for law enforcement for a 90-day trial period and removing the first parking spot on the north side of Mary Street at Kennedy Layne Salon as it interfered with traffic attempting to turn.