The Mercury 4/1/19

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April 1, 2019

THE MERCURY | UTDMERCURY.COM

Richardson traffic lights to undergo retiming Study finds city traffic at its peak in last decade

NOAH WHITEHEAD | PHOTO EDITOR

Traffic signals in Richardson will be retimed thanks to hardware upgrades. MARCO SALINAS Mercury Staff

sg BHARGAV ARIMILLI Editor-in-Chief

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ast week’s Student Government election resulted in a runoff between the top two presidential candidates, guaranteeing that a president and vice president from different tickets would serve the student body in the most contested election in SG history. Political science junior Ayoub Mohammed of the Labor ticket and neuroscience senior Danni Yang of the Ignite ticket are set to go head-to-head in the runoff election, scheduled for Wednesday. Public affairs junior Hope Cory of the Tier One ticket won the vice presidency with 37.8% of the vote. Her running mate, Trevor Schmaeling, finished third in the presidential race. Student Government bylaws dictate that in a threecandidate presidential race, the candidate with the most votes must command at least 40% of the total votes to win and must have a margin of victory greater than 1%. Neither Yang nor Mohammed won 40% of the vote. Yang garnered six more votes than Mohammed, well within the margin. “It’s an honor just to be in this runoff. That clearly shows that we do still have supporters and that there are students passionate about our ticket and campaign,” Yang said. “Mostly, my thoughts were just next steps. What can I do to incentivize more students to vote and make sure that hopefully all student voices are represented?” Mohammed said he was motivated by the fact that eight senators on his ticket had been elected. “I’m just really excited,” Mohammed said. “We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing, spreading our message and platform, and hopefully we’ll win (on) Wednesday.”

→ SEE ELECTION, A recently completed traffic study found Richardson traffic volume at its highest in over a decade, prompting officials to update traffic light infrastructure. The study, conducted by engineering firm Big Red Dog, took three years and monitored traffic at signals throughout Richardson. The director of transportation engineering for Big Red Dog, Dan Hennessey, said the study showed a 1% year-over-year traffic volume increase from 2016 to 2018. Following the study, the North Central Texas Council of Governments gave $928,000 to the City of Richardson, after the city applied for $1.2 million, toward improving detection equipment and retiming around 100 traffic signals throughout Richardson. “(Traffic) increased about between 1015% since roughly 2011, and so now traffic volume goes back to where they were in their peak sometime around 2001 or 2002,” Hennessey said. Robert Saylor, the city of Richardson’s traffic engineering and operations manager, said the Big Red Dog study was a comprehensive analysis of Richardson’s traffic. “It was analyzing the performance and then comparing it to the cities and comparable arterials and locations in surrounding communities,” Saylor said. “It was more of a high-level analysis — it was not a detailed analysis of intersection by intersection.” The study includes three main recommendations for improving traffic management in Richardson — updating the traffic signal cabinet and controller equipment, upgrading vehicle detection and updating traffic management system software. The city will update both the traffic signal cabinet and controller equipment — a process that can only be done on-site — as well as updating vehicle detection, which currently only monitors traffic at individual traffic signals using electromagnetic loops underneath the road surface that are less accurate than video detection. “The existing (vehicle) detection is mostly in-pavement electromagnetic loops which are fine for individual signals, but they make it hard to manage a system,” Hennessey said. “The city is currently upgrading all of that

→ SEE TRAFFIC,

Ayoub Mohammed Labor

Danni Yang Ignite

ALESANDRA BELL | MERCURY STAFF

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Faculty works to be featured at downtown arts hub $250K donation establishes three-year program to sponsor UTD art installations at Eisemann Center PATRICIA MATHU Mercury Staff

Two North Texas philanthropists donated $250,000 in early March to bring UTD art to the Richardson community through the creation of the Eisemann Edge Endowment Fund. Ann and Charles Eisemann have directed their philanthropy towards many aspects of the art scene in Richardson over the years. ATEC Dean Anne Balsamo said the quarter million-dollar donation will allow an ATEC faculty member to create annual installations from 2020 to 2022 at the Eisemann Center, an arts hub in downtown Richardson. “We have to ask ourselves — where are the most creative people in the Southwest?” Charles Eisemann said. “Those people are at UTD. (The) incoming crop of freshman is the best and the brightest. Every year, the arts

are going to change because these people show up and they have new ideas about arts and technology.” The Eisemann Edge Endowment Fund will support Andrew Scott, an associate professor and visual artist, whose projection art caught the attention of the Eisemann Center, Balsamo said. He will work with students in ATEC’s 3D studio to create installations that will explore the intersection of arts and technology. “I’m filling up notebooks with ideas that we can do,” Scott said. “It is a wonderful challenge and a wonderful opportunity to do what excites me most every day when I come to work — engage my students.” Scott said he does not know exactly where the arts scene in Richardson is heading but that he is grateful for the patronage to pursue something larger

→ SEE EISEMANN,

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NOAH WHITEHEAD | PHOTO EDITOR

The Eisemann Center, an arts complex in downtown Richardson, will host UTD faculty artwork from 2020-2022 as the result of an Eisemann family donation.

Men's baseball makes comeback after losses Comets defeat Concordia in ASC Tournament match PRANATI CHITTA Mercury Staff

AMINA HUSSAIN | MERCURY STAFF

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ELECTION TRIGGERS RUNOFF

Senior infielder Matt Mikusek competes against Mary Hardin-Baylor on March 26.

The men’s baseball team played three games of this year’s American Southwest Conference Tournament this weekend against Concordia University, coming up short in the first two but making a comeback in the third. The team competed in two ASC series earlier this season where it won one game each series. The ASC Tournament will consist of 15 games to end the sea-

son, three of which have already been played against Concordia University. The Comets lost 7-1 and 7-5 in the first two matches played on Friday but defeated Concordia 6-1 on Saturday. “This season has kind of been up and down,” said head coach Shane Shewmake. “(The freshmen are) playing hard and working hard but sometimes you don’t get the results you want as often as you want.” Last season, the team had 16 seniors

→ SEE BASEBALL,

Learn about the histories behind classic American foods.

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