Q. Many streets in Grand Forks need their stripes repainted. What is the city's plan for this?
A. According to Streets Superintendent Mark Aubol, the city started repainting the lines on city streets this past week, but rainy weather has caused some delays in painting.
City street crews will continue to repaint the lines on the streets when the weather allows it, Aubol said.
Q. Why did the city install the push buttons for the walk signals downtown? I work downtown and go for walks on my lunch break and over half of them don't even work anymore. Why aren't the walk signals just automatic like in larger cities?
A. City Traffic Engineer Jane Williams said signals with pedestrian push buttons and vehicle detection cameras, such as those downtown, are more efficient.
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"Per federal law, signals without pedestrian push buttons are timed to cycle the green light from the main street to the side street on a regular basis, even when pedestrians and/or vehicles are not there," Williams said.
"Stopping vehicles for no reason (under the system without pedestrian push buttons) causes extra air pollution, noise, wear and tear on streets, loss of time, loss of fuel and other concerns," she said.
"If there are any problems with the signals (in Grand Forks), we ask the public to report these by calling 311," Williams said. "Electrical equipment can fail at any time and we may not know about it until our next routine maintenance check."
