A state traffic engineer met with the Kearns Town Council Tuesday night in an attempt to quiet residents' concerns that some streets are unsafe for students and other pedestrians.
Council members were concerned about school zones and crosswalks and the intersection at Cougar Lane and 5400 South, particularly since the Jan. 13 auto-pedestrian accident in which Nephi Holyoak was killed in front of Kearns High School. They also asked questions about other problem areas in Kearns.John Leonard, district traffic engineer for Utah Department of Transportation, told the council that under a law just passed by the Legislature, flashing lights would be used only at crosswalks - places at which a driver would expect pedestrians to be.
Also, UDOT will place the lights and a speed limit sign of 20 mph, 100 to 150 feet in front of a crosswalk, he said. School zones will end 50 feet after the crosswalk under the new law.
"We are trying to identify the area where the children are at the greatest risk," Leonard said. "We cannot get a driver to do 20 mph for any appreciable length of time."
He said the law was changed after the state studied Arizona's school zones, which have not had a death in more than 25 years.
Council members were concerned about how to persuade children to use crosswalks. One council member asked if the city could have diagonal crosswalks. Leonard said no because it would take longer for the children to cross the street and their backs would be to traffic some of that time.
The intersection at 5400 South and Cougar Lane is dangerous because it's on a curve and on the crest of a hill just before the light.
UDOT is tentatively planning crosswalks at three points between 6200 South and 7800 South. The estimated cost is $1.4 million.
Leonard said UDOT plans to work closely with the school districts to find out where the heaviest traffic areas are and to determine which are the most dangerous.
"Our goal is to protect those kids," Leonard said. "It doesn't work if we have a whole bunch of junk out there that doesn't work."
UDOT also has restrictions on the distance between crosswalks.
"We won't put a crosswalk within 600 feet of another crosswalk or a lighted intersection," Leonard said.