Glasgow officials are trying to figure out how to relieve traffic congestion on the city’s public square.

At a meeting Monday of the city’s infrastructure committee, officials from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said the cabinet will conduct a study of traffic on the square so a definitive plan for reducing the congestion can be made.

Joe Plunk, chief engineer for KYTC’s District 3, said traffic often moves slowly on the square because heavily traveled South Green Street and Ky. 90 both flow into it.

“We have several major arterial routes that all come together at one point,” he said.

Veterans Outer Loop, which snakes around roughly half of Glasgow, was designed in part to give drivers a way to avoid the square. However, the number of drivers using it for that purpose appears to be less than KYTC anticipated before the project’s completion a few years ago, Plunk said.

“I get the sense that that is happening, but not to the extent we were hoping,” he said.

Glasgow Mayor Dick Doty said the traffic congestion has also led to pedestrian safety concerns on the square. The square has been prone to congestion for decades, Doty said, adding that he remembers heavy traffic in the square when he was a child.

“I’ve heard people say it’s been that way since the beginning of time,” he said.

While there are plenty of streets downtown drivers can use to avoid the square, many are narrow or feature an abundance of stop signs that make them unattractive alternatives, Doty said.

“The flow on those streets is not necessarily great, either,” he said.

Ideas presented at the meeting included installing two-way traffic on certain sides of the square or in its entirety, doing away with crosswalks that aren’t on street corners and improving alternate routes.

Greg Harris, a member of the Glasgow City Council who attended the meeting, said no definite solutions were identified, though he thinks the idea of implementing two-way traffic could work.

“I don’t think that would be a bad idea, especially if we have stoplights,” he said.

Harris, who owns a Subway franchise on the north side of the square, said traffic is an issue outside his restaurant. Part of this stems from a tendency for drivers to ignore a stop sign at the entrance of the square nearest the Subway, he said.

At the meeting, KYTC agreed to perform a study to analyze the square’s traffic patterns so the city can make an informed decision. Plunk said the study would involve having KYTC employees monitor traffic on the square to see where drivers tend to enter and exit the square.

KYTC data from 2014 shows that an average of 7,199 vehicles drive on West Public Square and 8,221 on North Public Square per day, but Plunk said the data doesn’t give KYTC any sense of drivers’ habits within the square.

“We don’t have a good handle on who’s turning where and when they go into the square,” he said.

The study would likely start shortly after the school year begins and take about a month to complete, Plunk said.