The Washington City Council will decide during its July meeting the best way of handling traffic at a well-traveled intersection at the corner of Market and Main streets.

Since Hurricane Florence blew through Beaufort County last September, the traffic signals at the intersection have been out of commission and covered in burlap. In their place, three temporary stop signs, set in old tires and weighed down by sandbags, have been the method of traffic control.

“The public safety is the main concern, and both options will achieve that goal,” City Manager Jonathan Russell said. “From a cost standpoint, it is a little cheaper to operate with just the stop signs because there’s no electrical or significant maintenance upkeep.”

On the other end of the harbor district, the storm also knocked out signals at the intersection of Main and Gladden streets. Some months back, the Council decided to install permanent stop signs at that intersection, replacing the defective signals.

Together, the two intersections bookend a two-block stretch of Main Street that will be subject to extensive streetscape renovations designed to make downtown more pedestrian friendly. Starting where Gladden and Main streets flow into Stewart Parkway, these renovations are scheduled to begin in January 2020.

“With the streetscape plan, the intent behind that is to still be car-friendly, but to increase pedestrian traffic downtown,” Russell said. “We will look at how pedestrian traffic and vehicular traffic continues to flow through that area, and if we need to make any changes with different signage or lighting, we’ll do so accordingly. I think that will be taken into consideration, as what were trying to achieve is a good flow of both pedestrian and vehicular traffic through the downtown.”

For the council, the question is which traffic control option will be most effective for both cars and pedestrians and how this fits with the overall vision for Washington’s downtown. Among council members, there are varying opinions.

“From what I understand, the city’s experiment with stop signs seems to be doing OK,” Councilman Roland Wyman said. “I think the city has found that there has not been a serious increase in traffic incidents since going to stop signs, so my inclination would be to leave it as it is.”

Councilman William Pitt, on the other hand, is of the opinion that there needs to be a traffic signal at the site, as stop signs can be easier to miss.

“It really needs to be signalized and regulated,” Pitt said. “The speed limit downtown has gotten so slow that people are going to run that stop sign. Not only that, but they’re going to run that stop sign because there’s not something visual there to slow them down. I know nothing’s going to happen until the streetscape thing is decided, but I don’t think you need to have a street where the only thing that holds it back is stop signs. Stop signs are not a deterrent for speeding.”

Do you have an opinion on what kind of traffic control should be at the intersection? Vote in the WDN online poll at www.thewashingtondailynews.com.