Lynn Brien didnâÂÂt find it particularly difficult Thursday to maneuver through the intersection of Seventh and Kentucky streets on his way to the post office.

So he was a bit surprised to learn the intersection tops the list of sites city traffic engineers say could use a traffic light.

âÂÂI would doubt if they need one,â Brien said. âÂÂI donâÂÂt have any problems going through there.âÂÂ

But Brien and other drivers probably wonâÂÂt have to slow for a red light at the intersection anytime soon.

ThatâÂÂs because traffic lights are expensive enough that the city can generally afford to add only one or two a year, unless state officials agree to pay for an intersection they deem particularly needy.

âÂÂIn a perfect world, weâÂÂd try to take care of everything we possibly could,â said Mayor Sue Hack.

The city each year compiles and ranks its list of top intersections needing signals. The ranking is based on the daily volume of traffic multiplied by the number of crashes that have happened at that site in the past three years.

Traffic engineers then use that number to calculate how many crashes might be expected at an intersection for every 100 million cars driving through. For Seventh and Kentucky, the number is 162.73.

ItâÂÂs a number deliberately designed to impress. At its current rate of 14,000 cars per day, it would take roughly 19.5 years for 163 crashes to occur at the intersection.

âÂÂIf we did it per million (cars), some of these numbers would be 0.05, which doesnâÂÂt mean anything to anybody,â said David Woosley, the cityâÂÂs traffic engineer.

ThatâÂÂs still an average of eight crashes per year. But Seventh and Kentucky still isnâÂÂt getting a signal this year. Thirty-first Street and Nieder Road, third on the cityâÂÂs list, gets that honor.

The intersection of 31st and Nieder has a crash rating of 79.98 — a little more than five crashes per year for the 18,000 cars entering the intersection every day.

Thirty-first and Nieder moved to the head of the list because nearby 31st and Iowa already is being torn up to expand lanes and add a traffic signal to make way for a new Home Depot store being built nearby.

âÂÂItâÂÂs a matter of opportunity,â said City Manager Mike Wildgen. âÂÂInstead of tying up the intersection for three years, we thought weâÂÂd do it in one year.âÂÂ

It also helps if the city can get help paying for a signal. The Kansas Department of Transportation deemed 31st and Iowa traffic sufficiently bad to warrant it paying $300,000 for the new signal there.

âÂÂWe look for grants first,â Wildgen said.

The city wonâÂÂt be able to take care of all its traffic signal priorities in one year, though.

It costs as much as $750,000 to put in a new signal; more if itâÂÂs done in conjunction with other improvements to the intersection.

âÂÂEvery one of them,â Wildgen said of intersection improvements, âÂÂis more complicated than the signals themselves.âÂÂ