The Watchdog | Give ’em 280 feet and they’ll take … only a little

The problem

Kris Kunz of Shawnee says she has to be careful not to be hit in traffic when she travels north on Roe Avenue through the intersection at 48th Street in Roeland Park. To protect people driving in the right lane on Roe, she’d like to see a yield sign directed at drivers merging into northbound Roe Avenue traffic from westbound 48th Street.

The answer

There’s no yield sign because traffic has a 280-foot merge lane, says David Mootz, director of public works for Roeland Park, and he doesn’t know of any accidents that have happened there. However, he observed the area in the morning and saw that many drivers do not use the full length of the merge lane and try to merge quickly.

Mootz says he’ll have the city engineer assess the situation to decide if a yield sign is necessary.

The Watchdog vows to take Mootz’s response to the extreme in all situations: Procrastinate, and then wait some more.