The city of South Bend is spending more money to convince the state to allow a full traffic light in front of the Indiana Dinosaur Museum. But persuading the state could be a tall order.
On Thursday the city’s redevelopment commission approved the city’s request to have a consultant do a more in-depth study of traffic at the intersection of U.S. 20 and Olive Road, near the museum’s entrance. The city wants to install a stop light for people turning into the museum.
That would have to be approved by the Indiana Department of Transportation because U.S. 20 is maintained by the state. Cassandra Bajek, public relations director for INDOT’s Northwest District, says INDOT does not think traffic counts at the intersection are high enough to warrant a stoplight. But even if that changes, she says the off-ramp from U.S. 31 is likely too close to the intersection to safely have a full traffic light there.
As an example, Bajek described what could happen when southbound U.S. 31 traffic exits to visit the museum.
”They’d be coming off that off-ramp and then they’d have to get all the way over into a left turn lane, but they might be dealing with queued traffic that’s stopped at that signal and that can create quite a safety issue," Bajek says. "So it’s not just as simple as saying, ‘Hey there’s enough traffic here, let’s throw up a signal.’ We have to look at how it would operate with the other assets in the area.”
The city already has paid the consultant $53,000 and is paying them $30,000 more for the additional analysis.
