MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
Posted: Thursday, January 14, 2010 10:45 am

To help traffic flow, Murfreesboro is considering a red-light timing study.

“As part of the city’s overall transportation operations program, traffic signal retiming is one of the most cost effective ways to improve traffic movement and make streets safer,” Murfreesboro Traffic Engineer Ram Balachandran said.

At a cost of almost $75,000, the study will look at traffic flow through Medical Center Parkway between Gateway Boulevard and Interstate 24, Middle Tennessee Boulevard between Southeast Broad Street and North Highland Avenue and New Salem Pike between Bridge Avenue and River Rock Boulevard.

Traffic data will be collected during the morning, lunch and evening rush hours, where travel time, speed, stops and delay will be measured to evaluate traffic flow along the three streets.

The city will also focus energy on retiming lights on North Thompson Lane at Sam Waldron Drive, Robert Rose Drive and Wilkinson Pike.

Other Murfreesboro City Council business:
• Consider the purchase of two police pursuit vehicles for the Murfreesboro Police Department.

At a cost of more than $44,000, the cars will replace two older pursuit vehicles that were totaled in a crash in November 2009.

The Murfreesboro Fire Department has also requested funding to buy a 75-foot aerial truck at a discounted price of more than $610,000.

• Consider reallocating $50,000 in grant money from the Community Development Department’s Housing Rehab fund to its Affordable Housing Assistance fund.

Community Development Director John Callow said the money shift is necessary because the Affordable Housing fund has run out of money and “this will help at least five first-time homebuyers become home owners.”

• Council will also schedule pub hearings for:
A. Zoning Ordinance Amendments to Section 2, 9, 24, Chart 1 & 4 regarding Postmortem Establishments;
B. Zoning request to rezone approximately .52 acres located along Medical Center Parkway from PCD to CF;
C. Zoning request to rezone 1.29 acres located along Lascassas Pike & Wenlon Drive from RM-16 to CL.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.