MONROE - The Monroe Police Department has received a number of complaints about the intersection at West 8th Street and 6th Avenue West, and the city may install a stop sign to help alleviate confusion.
Chief of Police Fred Kelley brought the idea of creating a four-way stop at the crossway near Taco Bell to the Public Safety Committee Monday, Feb. 3, where committee members gave general consent to a new traffic study. The intersection is currently a three-way stop: southbound traffic on 6th Avenue West, coming off the Wis. 11 bypass, does not stop.
Walmart is due to perform a traffic study on the ramp areas off of Wis. 11 and 6th Avenue West, so Al Gerber, the city's engineering supervisor, was tasked with asking Walmart to include the intersection in its study.
Kelley said about 50 percent of the vehicles southbound on 6th Avenue West tend to stop anyway, even when they don't have to. He has offered up alternative solutions to congestion at the crossing, including installing a roundabout, putting up a speed radar machine that blinks when drivers are over the speed limit of 25 miles per hour, or installing a traffic light.
He said the Department of Transportation conducted a traffic study of the intersection recently and found no need for a traffic light or a stop sign.
Alderman Brooke Bauman jokingly said, "You have built-in speed bumps because the road is so bad there."
Kelley said he will have his officers police the crossroad more often to catch speeders and to hopefully drive home the point that this is a problem intersection.
The committee also heard Kelley suggest an alternative route for all-terrain vehicles away from County K. The substitute route would run through mostly residential areas in a disjointed run, weaving its way from 15th Street by the roller den to North 25th Street, and finally joining the existing route on 12th Street.
The push to reroute comes from the Green County Tourism department and a private business that caters to ATV users. Most of the committee members had concerns about the path, especially Bauman, whose ward is where the route runs through. She said it is a quiet neighborhood that has few sidewalks, which she said could cause problems with pedestrians walking in the road where the ATVs would be driving.
The committee did not choose to make a motion on this item but Kelley said he would bring back the concerns members showed to the tourism department and the private business owner.
Chief of Police Fred Kelley brought the idea of creating a four-way stop at the crossway near Taco Bell to the Public Safety Committee Monday, Feb. 3, where committee members gave general consent to a new traffic study. The intersection is currently a three-way stop: southbound traffic on 6th Avenue West, coming off the Wis. 11 bypass, does not stop.
Walmart is due to perform a traffic study on the ramp areas off of Wis. 11 and 6th Avenue West, so Al Gerber, the city's engineering supervisor, was tasked with asking Walmart to include the intersection in its study.
Kelley said about 50 percent of the vehicles southbound on 6th Avenue West tend to stop anyway, even when they don't have to. He has offered up alternative solutions to congestion at the crossing, including installing a roundabout, putting up a speed radar machine that blinks when drivers are over the speed limit of 25 miles per hour, or installing a traffic light.
He said the Department of Transportation conducted a traffic study of the intersection recently and found no need for a traffic light or a stop sign.
Alderman Brooke Bauman jokingly said, "You have built-in speed bumps because the road is so bad there."
Kelley said he will have his officers police the crossroad more often to catch speeders and to hopefully drive home the point that this is a problem intersection.
The committee also heard Kelley suggest an alternative route for all-terrain vehicles away from County K. The substitute route would run through mostly residential areas in a disjointed run, weaving its way from 15th Street by the roller den to North 25th Street, and finally joining the existing route on 12th Street.
The push to reroute comes from the Green County Tourism department and a private business that caters to ATV users. Most of the committee members had concerns about the path, especially Bauman, whose ward is where the route runs through. She said it is a quiet neighborhood that has few sidewalks, which she said could cause problems with pedestrians walking in the road where the ATVs would be driving.
The committee did not choose to make a motion on this item but Kelley said he would bring back the concerns members showed to the tourism department and the private business owner.