WEATHER DELAYS BROADWAY STRIPING; MOTORISTS FIND LACK OF LANES ON BROADWAY CONFUSING

Broadway may be wider and paved, but some drivers are having a hard time parting with old habits of driving on the two-lane road that was recently under seemingly perpetual construction.

"It seems like a lot of people still want to drive in single file," said Lance Keller, who owns a business on Broadway.

Street improvements that have altered driving patterns around Cape Girardeau for months have ended for a while on Broadway, which is now a four-lane street between Kingshighway and Perry Avenue.

But without white and yellow stripes, some drivers don't know how to behave.

Keller, who owns Ken's Cape Cleaners, often sees cars proceeding in staggered lines east and west along the new black asphalt. Sometimes he said he finds himself reverting to old driving habits of dodging protruding manhole covers and construction potholes.

City Engineer Mark Lester had planned to use two days this week to paint stripes on Broadway, but he said the weather hasn't cooperated.

"We wanted to give it a couple of weeks to settle so the oil would evaporate out some," Lester said. "But the rain has stopped us."

Temperatures also need to be above 40 degrees, he said.

Despite the unfamiliarity of a four-lane Broadway, accidents have not been significant, police Sgt. Jack Wimp said. "It seems like everyone is at least staying on his side of the roadway," Wimp said.

Nevertheless, police ask drivers to travel on the road as if it were two lanes.

"It's kind of a tricky situation," Lt. Carl Kinnison said. "But if we're talking about safety, that's the best thing to do."

However, police won't enforce two-lane driving, he said. Drivers who want to pass should just look for a safe opportunity, said Kinnison.

Crashes have increased at the intersection of Broadway and Clark Street. Wimp blamed them on drivers' unfamiliarity with the new traffic signal.

Left-turn signals

The addition of a left-turn arrow for eastbound drivers turning from Broadway onto Clark is a planned addition that should improve the intersection, Lester said. It will stop westbound traffic while eastbound drivers turn left.

The volume of eastbound drivers who turn left at the intersection is much greater than westbound drivers who turn left at Clark, Lester said.

Mayor Al Spradling III, whose law office is on Broadway, has noticed that drivers are rediscovering the street after months of avoidance.

"Independence Street was carrying so much traffic it was disrupting the general flow of traffic," Spradling said.

A positive change on Broadway has been additional storm-water gutters, which kept this week's rains from collecting into a pond at the Caruthers intersection, he said.

One portion of Broadway, which was not widened between Clark and Kingshighway, has extra paint on the road. Old right-turn arrows pointing out the forced turn for eastbound traffic just before Clark are still visible.

The ease of removal depends on the layers of existing paint, said Tim Gramling, assistant public works director.

Paint removal on Mount Auburn Road, which recently became four lanes from Kingshighway to William Street, was more time consuming, he said.

"Basically we grind off the old paint," Gramling said. "It leaves a little bit of a scar. This exposes new material, and the color is a bit different until it oxidizes."

Some have told Lester that the extra lanes on Mount Auburn have increased speeds, but he said he has his doubts since the lanes now are more narrow.