STANTON : City Will Purchase Traffic Study System

As the county becomes more developed, roads become swollen with traffic and must be improved.

To determine when a road needs widening, turn lanes or a traffic signal, city engineers regularly monitor traffic flow.

Traffic studies are usually done simply. A pressure-sensitive tube can be laid across a road to count the number of passing vehicles and show when volume is highest.

To study intersections, workers watch traffic and press buttons on hand-held counters as vehicles go straight or make turns.

If a study shows that many cars need to turn, a turn lane could be added.

Stanton does not have any traffic monitoring equipment, according to Fred Wickman, the city engineer.

But the City Council recently approved the purchase of a $17,000 system that will allow the city to study traffic and feed information into city computers for analysis.

The city will get traffic counters to place on the roads, intersection counters and software. A state grant will pay for the equipment.

“They’re nothing that fancy. Now that they are computerized, you can get a few more studies out of them,” Wickman said of the new equipment.

The city currently contracts for traffic studies, Wickman said, and will save money with the new system.

Wickman said the city has to monitor traffic in order to receive Measure M funds, which pay for special road projects but cannot be used for regular maintenance.

To qualify, the city must prove through traffic studies that roads aren’t being allowed to deteriorate.

“We have to take counts a little more often than we did in the past,” Wickman noted.