Last modified: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 10:17 AM PDT Fruitland board hears traffic study report By JESSICA KELLER ARGUS OBSERVER FRUITLAND — A traffic count on South Pennsylvania Avenue revealed more issues for Fruitland to tackle than just securing funding for a street overlay. Monday night at the Fruitland City Council City session, transportation engineer Karen Doherty reported the results of a traffic count study performed on South Pennsylvania Avenue from March 30 to April 2 to support a request for a stimulus fund grant to overlay the street that connects to U.S. Highway 95. She told the council, while the average daily traffic and peak hour volume support the current set up of a two-lane road with a center turn lane, traffic issues arise during the afternoon hours in front of Fruitland Middle School because of vehicles lining up to wait for children. Doherty said it was observed, because of cars lining up in front of the school in the afternoon, the northbound lane is blocked, and vehicles traveling north on South Pennsylvania resort to driving in the center turn lane to get around the vehicles waiting. Also, Doherty said, southbound traffic lines up in the two-way left turn lane waiting for an opportunity to turn left into the middle school, causing delays. “It’s inevitable you’re going to see a collision there,” Doherty said to the council. “It’s only a matter of time.” She also said, on occasion, southbound traffic is stopping in the bike lane, causing traffic to use the center turn lane to pass those waiting cars. “So you have opposing traffic trying to use that two-way left turn lane to get around traffic,” Doherty said. She said, regardless of whether the city receives stimulus funding, she recommended working with school district administrators to rectify the problem and create a safe traffic environment. Doherty said one option was rechanneling traffic by creating a right turn in, right turn out scenario for cars at the middle school. She said after the meeting, however, she would have to talk to administrators about the problem, adding some of the solution would require driver education. “It’s just an opportunity to change driver behavior through some rechannelization and some education,” she said. Doherty also pointed out to the council the average speed of traffic is a couple miles per hour above the posted limit, and she suggested adding enforcement in the area. She said, according to the study, the average morning peak hour is from 7:30 to 8:30, and traffic travels an average of 26.8 mph. In the afternoon, an average of 274 vehicles were counted with the speed an average of 27.4 mph. Overall the average speed is 25.2 mph with 85 percent traveling at 29.8 mph. City manager Rick Watkins said police would focus on the area and tackle both the speed and pickup issues. “The speed thing really does surprise me,” City Councilman Ed Pierson said.