STATE WILL CONDUCT TRAFFIC SURVEY HERE

The Missouri Highway and Transportation Department plans to ask motorists in the Cape Girardeau-Jackson area some questions about where they're going this week.

The department's data collection supervisor, Terry Carrender, says an extensive origin and destination traffic survey will be conducted in the area today through Thursday.

Carrender said the brief roadside interviews will be conducted at three sites: Route 72 west of Jackson; Route K west of Cape Girardeau; and Route 74 southwest of Cape Girardeau.

Carrender said the Highway 72 interview station will be between Pioneer Orchards Market and the Highway 34 junction; the Route 74 station will be west of the Highway 74-Bloomfield Road intersection near Potashnick Construction Co.; and the Route K station will be a short distance east of the Route K-Highway 25 intersection at Gordonville.

"Our survey team plans to be in Cape Girardeau on Monday. If the weather is good, we may go ahead and set up the Route 72 survey station late Monday afternoon. The other survey stations will open Tuesday morning," he said.

Carrender said each station will be operated 12 hours each day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

He said: "We'll ask motorists information about where they are coming from, where they are going, and the purpose of the trip. At the same time, our surveyors will also observe the type of vehicle the motorist is driving, the direction of travel, and number of people in the vehicle. If motorists will cooperate, it shouldn't take more than 20 to 25 seconds to complete the survey."

He said the questions will not relate to any personal matters.

"Our interview teams are trained to make the process as quickly as possible," Carrender said. "When traffic becomes heavy, only a portion of the motorists will be interviewed to keep traffic flowing."

He said motorist surveys are requested by highway department district engineers to provide updated data on traffic flows and patterns. "If there are a lot of new projects planned for an area, the engineer will ask us to conduct the survey so they'll have the necessary traffic data to make design and improvement decisions," he explained.