INDOT Agrees To Change Sign At Ind. 25 & S. Union St.

School crossing signs on West Winona Avenue (Ind. 25W) will be replaced with a general pedestrian crossing sign after the Warsaw Traffic Commission heard and discussed a concern about students crossing the state road at South Union Street.
Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) Traffic Engineer Dana Plattner and Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG) Transportation Planner Dustin New were on hand to discuss the crossing. A concern about students crossing there was brought up to the Warsaw Common Council a few months ago by resident Nathan Callithen and then passed on to Warsaw Community Schools.
Tracy Horrell, WCS assistant superintendent for secondary education, said the school corporation did an assessment with Transportation Director Mark Fick.
“We have a process in place. We discover or monitor if students are crossing not only 25 but also 15, especially when the weather gets warm, and we saw a massive increase of crossing of the high school across 15 because it’s much quicker to walk home than ride the bus for 35 minutes,” Horrell said.
He said he received a call from Plattner about a sign for walkers to cross on Ind. 25 at Union. If the school corporation does find out a student is walking and crossing at that intersection, they notify the student and parent that it is a “no-walk zone” and transportation is provided across Ind. 25 and Ind. 15.
It was brought up to Horrell that maybe those school crossing signs need to be removed.
“Warsaw Community Schools is not saying they need to be removed, but we want to do everything we can to not entice students to walk across, but to provide a safe environment. So I think we have everybody here at the table today to have those conversations on that point of view,” he said.
Callithen, who lives in the neighborhood of Winona Avenue and Union Street, said regardless of whether they’re busing students or not, it’s not just a concern for during school hours. He said there was a potential for kids to be killed at the intersection.
“I don’t think the answer is going to be telling kids not to cross there, because they’re going to cross anyway,” he said, adding that busing kids doesn’t fix the initial problem of the “unsafe” intersection.
Plattner said he wasn’t sure he understood that there was a problem at the intersection.
“I get that there’s a concern with the school children actually crossing, so I understand why the school did what they did. ... The signs that we have there are school crossing signs, and so, technically speaking, that would be accurate because those are designated school crossing signs. So, if the school said there’s not going to be a crossing here, then those signs shouldn’t be there,” Plattner stated.
If there’s still pedestrian activity at the intersection, he said he had no problem replacing the school crossing signs with the crosswalk pedestrian crossing signs.
“I’m just not sure there’s a problem there. Is there a potential for an issue? Absolutely. There’s a potential for something to happen at frankly any intersection where you have an uncontrolled crossing where there’s a pedestrian that crosses and has to find a gap in traffic,” Plattner said.
He said, at least for the moment, the sign change was adequate and wasn’t aware of a demand of pedestrians crossing there that would necessitate any further action beyond that.
City Planner Justin Taylor said he thought it was a good idea to enhance the crossing in whatever way they could. It’s not just students who cross there, but other people who cross there during the day.
Horrell said he was more worried about high school students crossing Ind. 15, but changing the signs on Ind. 25 was good.
About six years, a right-turn only onto Winona Avenue from going north on Union Street was put in. Warsaw Police Department Capt. Joel Beam said that since 2019, there have only been four crashes at the intersection, so the right-turn only has made a difference for vehicle crashes. There have been no vehicle-versus-pedestrian crashes.
“We had many crashes at this intersection before 2017. I think it was a big win making that change,” Plattner said.
“Absolutely,” Beam agreed.
This was the first time Plattner had heard a concern about the signage.
There was some discussion about more sidewalks being put into place along the state roads where students walk and cross, but Thallemer said there’s only so much the city can do along state roads like Ind. 15.
In other business, the commission:
• Heard from Tina Phipps, 223 W. Winona Ave., about vehicles causing damage to her property. She suggested maybe putting flashing stop signs at the intersection with Washington Street to maybe slow down the traffic. Plattner said he would look into it.
• Heard from Beam that, after a traffic count, there is no issue with speeders on Shady Lane. There may be speeders, but he only counted three vehicles speeding over 30 mph during the six-day study.
• Tabled to the August meeting Street Superintendent Dustin Dillon’s concern about the traffic on Bison Lane and the alley. Drivers are heading west from Buffalo Street in the alley and cars heading either way on Bison Lane do not stop at the cross section.
• Rescheduled the August meeting from Aug. 2 to Aug. 9 at 1 p.m.