Is Provo traffic light needed?

PROVO — Parents of about 100 elementary school students are frustrated a traffic light won't be installed along Geneva Road to help their children go to school until the Utah Department of Transportation finishes its own homework.

In August, the new Lakeview Elementary, 1390 N. 2950 West, will open its doors to an estimated 800 students. But parents say some children who live in the Reese Estates and Whisper Woods subdivision — just a few blocks east of the school — have a considerable obstacle between them and school: Geneva Road.

"There's just no way for an elementary kid to cross Geneva Road safely without assistance," said Karl Golding, a member of the Lakeview PTA.

City officials and school administrators also have expressed concerns about the high congestion rates and lack of traffic lights at 1390 North and Geneva Road. But UDOT officials say they don't plan to install a light until they finish traffic studies in the area, which would start when the school opens and finish about a year later.

City Councilwoman Sherrie Hall Everett said Geneva Road is like a country road in a city. Cars often travel 5 to 10 mph above the posted 45 mph speed limit, and the traffic is getting worse.

Everett said she wished logic would prevail.

"You've got a school, you've got a park, you've got a busy road here," she said. "Let's just do the right thing here. ... Why not sooner before there's an accident?"

But UDOT spokesman Scott Thompson said installing a traffic light is not as simple as it sounds.

"We'll give it a full appraisal to see if it warrants the possibility of a traffic signal," he said.

In the meantime, parents and school administrators have been searching for an interim solution to their problem. Greg Hudnall, director of student services for Provo School District, said officials have decided to send a bus from the elementary school to pick up students on the other side of Geneva Road — less than a mile down the road.

But local resident Melanie Epling said the bus may prove to be an expensive solution, as well as counterproductive to obtaining a traffic light. In a letter addressed to the mayor and City Council, she said UDOT will conduct a study that includes a survey of cross traffic at 1390 North and Geneva Road. The bus would decrease cross traffic and decrease the likelihood of UDOT installing a traffic light.

"(The bus) not only defeats the need to convince UDOT that we do have a necessary amount of traffic crossing that intersection for them to install a light," she wrote, "but it is the most ridiculous usage of education tax dollars I have ever heard of."