THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY MARCH 12, 2015
PAGE 7A
MISSY MINEAR/KANSAN
A roundabout has been constructed at Wakarusa and Legends Drive to make commutes faster and increase safety.
Wakarusa roundabout aims to decrease traffic
MATT MCREYNOLDS
@UDKMatt
A new roundabout recently installed at the intersection of Wakarusa and Legends Drive seeks to speed up commute times and reduce traffic, city engineers said.
The intersection near Free State High School was completed in early January and includes a two-lane, Overland Park-style roundabout that commuters to Kansas City and neighboring suburbs may recognize. The addition of roundabouts like these to West Lawrence means students commuting from across town may face less traffic and accidents and have a shorter commute time to campus, as well as other off-campus destinations like Rock Chalk Park.
David Woosley, the City of Lawrence's traffic engineer, said the goal of installing a
roundabout in the area was a reduction of commute times.
"[The goal is] to reduce congestion as traffic increases in the area and to reduce crash potential," Woosley said. "Research has shown that roundabouts can reduce congestion and reduce crashes."
The roundabout completely eliminates the need for commuters to come to a full stop and wait their turn in line like the stop sign did, Woosley said.
The West Lawrence area has seen a great influx of development in recent months. With the installation of Rock Chalk Park and the Theatre Lawrence and more commercial development coming in the Bauer Farm district, traffic increases to the already heavy traffic flow needed a solution.
"I've seen a decrease in travel time through the intersection and received
several public comments to the effect, too," Lawrence City Engineer David Cronin said.
"The intersection was open Jan. 2, and from our last review in mid-February, there were no reported crashes during the first six weeks in full operation," Cronin said.
Cronin said since opening, the roundabout has been effective and operational.
While the city considers this project a success, the future of other four-way stops on Wakarusa remains a mystery.
"There are no current plans being worked on for other roundabouts in the area, but as we progress in the future with reconstructing streets, we will continue to review if it is appropriate to include intersection improvements," Cronin said.
Edited by Jordan Fox and Callie Byrnes
Ferguson chief resigns in wake of federal report
JIM SALTER Associated Press
Jackson had previously resisted calls by protesters and some of Missouri's top elected leaders to step down over his handling of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown and the weeks of sometimes-violent protests that followed. He was widely criticized from the outset, both for an aggressive police response to protesters and for his agency's erratic and infrequent releases of key information.
Jackson's resignation becomes effective March 19, at which point Lt. Col. Al Eickhoff will become acting chief while the city searches for a replacement.
He took nearly a week to publicly identify Officer Darren Wilson as the shooter and then further heightened tension in the community by releasing Wilson's name at the same time as store security video police said showed Brown stealing a box of cigars and shoving a clerk only a short time before his death.
Calling Chief Thomas Jackson an "honorable man," Mayor James Knowles III announced the city had reached a mutual separation agreement that will pay Jackson one year of his nearly $96,000 annual salary and health coverage.
FERGUSON, Mo. — The police chief in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson resigned Wednesday in the wake of a scathing Justice Department report prompted by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer.
"I believe this is the appropriate thing to do at this time," Jackson said. "This city needs to move forward without any distractions."
sentence letter in which he said he was announcing his resignation with profound sadness. He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he felt it was time for the city to move on.
Jackson submitted a four-
During a 12-minute news conference, Knowles said Jackson resigned after "a lot of soul-searching" about how the community could heal from the racial unrest stemming from the fatal shooting last summer.
"I believe this is the appropriate thing to do at this time. This city needs to move forward without any distractions."
THOMAS JACKSON
Former Ferguson, Mo.
police chief
"The chief is the kind of honorable man you don't have to go to." Knowles said. "He comes to you when he knows that this is something we have to seriously discuss."
Jackson becomes the sixth employee to resign or be fired after the U.S. Department of Justice last week issued the report that cleared Wilson of civil rights charges in the shooting but found a profit-driven court system and widespread racial bias in the city police department.
Justice Department officials had previously said they were willing to work with
whatever leadership the police department had. A U.S. law enforcement official said Wednesday the Justice Department had not pressured or encouraged Jackson to resign during meetings with him but had also not resisted the idea. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing meetings between the Justice Department and the police department.
The resignation was welcomed by state lawmakers who represent Ferguson.
"There would be a lot of people that would approve of that," said Democratic state Rep. Sharon Pace, who represents the neighborhood where Brown was shot.
Jackson oversaw the Ferguson force for nearly five years before the shooting that stirred months of unrest across the St. Louis region and drew global attention to the predominantly black city of 21,000.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster and U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill were among those working behind the scenes to get him to resign, but Jackson stood firm.
Since the Aug. 9 shooting, he has spoken of a desire to work with community members and described efforts to bolster minority hiring in a department that had just three black officers at the time of Brown's death.
But he struggled to manage a local crisis that turned into an international event and explain his decision-making at news conferences disrupted by angry protesters and grieving community members.