Council Reverses Course on Downtown Flashing Traffic Signals After Public Concerns

Decorah Vikings win, City Council votes, New Referenda on the ballot — we're the one telling Decorah's story. Donate now. DECORAH — After weeks of debate and public frustration, the Decorah City Council voted unanimously to restore downtown Water Street traffic lights to their traditional green-yellow-red operation, ending an experiment that had converted the intersections to flashing red signals. The lights were switched back to standard operation at 6 a.m. Tuesday following the council's discussion and vote during Monday night's meeting, where council members debated pedestrian safety, downtown traffic flow, construction impacts and the financial cost of maintaining aging traffic infrastructure. Council member Emily Neal argued strongly for restoring the conventional traffic lights, saying the flashing system created confusion and made downtown feel less safe for pedestrians. "I think our downtown doesn't have really good sight views," Neal said during the discussion. "The blinking lights are distracting downtown. When you look down Water Street, you just see all this blinking going on." Neal said she spent significant time downtown observing traffic patterns, talking with business owners and watching drivers and pedestrians navigate intersections. "I think usually the blinking lights make it super hard to parallel park and get out of parking spots," she said. Neal also raised concerns about the timing of the change, noting that Decorah is entering its busiest tourism and event season while simultaneously dealing with major road construction projects. "We've got graduations, school being let out, increased traffic," she said. "That's where I see more issues, is pedestrians not feeling safe crossing." Several council members agreed the flashing signals created visual confusion and uncertainty. Council member Cody Whittle said he appreciated staff's willingness to test new ideas but ultimately favored returning to the previous signal system. "I thought there was no reason that we should have stoplights downtown because it was so silly," Whittle said of his earlier views before joining the council. "But I have come around to seeing how useful they are." Whittle said he believed motorists were moving faster and paying less attention on Water Street because of detours and construction elsewhere in the city. "I would rather put the pedestrian forward and have the motorists find alternative routes," he said. Council member Johanna Bergan argued the city should allow more time for residents to adapt to the changes and warned against making decisions too quickly during an unusually disruptive construction season. "We as humans are naturally resistant to change," Bergan said. She initially said she favored keeping the flashing red light pattern and wanted to "see what happened as folks practiced navigating downtown" in hopes of creating a smoother traffic pattern. Council member Steve Zittergruen praised city staff for experimenting with lower-cost traffic management approaches at a time when local governments face increasing financial pressure. "We need to find ways to do things more efficiently," he said. He also questioned whether there was a broad understanding of the long-term costs associated with operating and maintaining traditional traffic signals downtown. "Everything's gotten more expensive since the decision was made to originally put traffic signals on Water Street," he said. "I question whether there's not something that we could accomplish that would make people a lot safer with the money that we spend on traffic signals." City Manager Travis Goedken told council members the city has spent tens of thousands of dollars maintaining the downtown traffic signals in recent years, including more than $60,000 in signal maintenance work and an additional $65,000 budgeted for future traffic signal projects. He said the city originally explored flashing signals partly because one signal controller needed replacement at a cost of roughly $20,000. Goedken also warned that restoring standard operation could create new traffic backups because of increased vehicle volume caused by ongoing construction projects. "If we turn the signals back on, we do have concern that the additional queuing is going to cross intersections and block intersections," Goedken said. Ultimately, the council reached consensus that the flashing-light experiment had created too much confusion and too many safety concerns to continue under current conditions. The council voted unanimously to return the signals to their traditional operation, and city crews restored the normal green-yellow-red sequence early Tuesday morning. Make your inbox your go-to for local news! Sign up for the free newsletter and get timely updates, special features, and more.