Relief may be on the way for motorists experiencing extended waiting time at some traffic signals in downtown LaGrange.

City Council has set a public hearing for Oct. 27 to discuss replacing traffic signals with stop signs at Broome Street’s intersections with Bull and Main streets, and Haralson Street’s intersections with Church Street and Ridley Avenue.

“We got to thinking … is there really a need to have several of those signals along the Main Street, Bull Street, Church and Ridley corridor?” said David Brown, director of public services for the city.

Some residents have complained about the extended waiting period at the traffic signals - sometimes up to five minutes.

The ordinance calls for four-way stops to replace the signals on Broome Street and stop signs to replace the signals on Haralson.

The traffic signals wouldn’t be taken down. Instead, they would blink a cautionary yellow for those traveling on Church and Ridley, and a stopping red for those on Haralson.

Because of heavy pedestrian traffic due to the Carmike Cinema LaGrange 10 at Main and Broome streets, those traffic signals would continuously blink red for the four-way stops.

“The lights are timed so that it permits the traffic on Haralson from crossing over for sometimes two, three, four minutes because it’s a low-traffic area,” Mayor Jeff Lukken said. “You’d actually be able to come off of Haralson much quicker if you had a stop sign instead of a traffic light, and so we felt like it would help with the flow of traffic to move a lot of those lights completely out.”

The city checked with the Georgia Department of Transportation to make sure the change would be permitted. Currently, DOT maintains traffic signals on its rights of way, which make up most of the downtown traffic area, said city utilities director Patrick Bowie.

Councilman Willie Edmondson questioned the possibility of increased speeding because of the change, but Lukken assured him the change wouldn’t be conducive to it.

“With a stoplight, if you’ve got all green you can actually build up much better speed than if you broke it up with some stop signs,” Lukken said. “Everybody would have to stop at a stop sign, but they won’t have to wait three or four minutes.”

Trey Wood can be reached at twood @ lagrangenews. com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 228.