City of Longview may conduct traffic study on problematic roadway

LONGVIEW, Texas (KLTV) - Traffic studies are something that very frequently come up in East Texas city council meetings, and one in Longview is said by drivers to be long overdue.

The short span on Fourth street, between Loop 281 and Hawkins parkway has been a subject of complaints for drivers for decades.

“It is frustrating, there’s always delays. people turning over the double yellow stripe, drivers not so courteous about it lots of times,” says driver Joe Knox.

Now that problem will be coming before Longview city council in a possible traffic study.

“We’ve heard the residents that this is an area they want looked at. This is a proposal to submit to go out and try to get grant money. Which would be for a study of that area,” said city of Longview public information officer Richard Yeakley.

“it could be laid out a little bit better with the volume of traffic we see,” Knox said.

One of the major problems with the section of Fourth street is there are no turning lanes. which often results in traffic being slowed or snarled.

“It just is likely that that area is going to get more and more congested, which is why it’s important that right now, we get the money and we start planning for the future,” Yeakley says.

With so many people trying to access Sam’s, Walmart, Lowes, and numerous restaurants and businesses in a small stretch, just making a turn can be frustrating.

“Remember the old bumper cars we have as kids? similar to that,” says Knox.

Regardless of the study, Yeakley says something has to be done, because the problem will not get better on its own.

“it’s a very congested area, and our folks who do our traffic studies only predict that its going to get more congested,” Richard says.

“I think it’s long overdue,” says Joe.

The item will come before Longview city council Thursday night, with the master agenda listing funding as part of the ‘Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.’

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