By the end of this week, motorists in the Northside Drive area will have a little more time to stop and think.

On Wednesday, Gainesville’s Public Works Department will add stop signs at two intersections along Northside Drive, briefly halting motorists approaching the North and Hillcrest Avenue intersection as well as those approaching Forrest Avenue.

The department will also make the intersection of Nix Drive and Sunset Boulevard an all-way stop.

Dee Taylor, Gainesville’s traffic engineer, said all-way stops are necessary at all three intersections because it is hard for motorists to see oncoming traffic.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials requires that at intersections, motorists must be able to see an oncoming vehicle from 335 feet away.

After studying the conditions of the intersections in October and November, Taylor found that neither of the intersections met the criteria from every vantage point.

Public Works Director Adrian Niles informed the City Council of the need for the stop signs at its last work session.

"Each one of these requests that we’ve gotten, they actually came from citizen complaints," Niles said at the Feb. 14 work session. "There are some sight-distance issues at the intersections."

Taylor said the department had received complaints about the Nix Drive and Sunset Boulevard intersection as well as the Northside Drive and North Avenue intersection.

"When somebody calls us, we try to get out there within 10 business days and have a report done, because we’re on notice that ‘OK, you’ve got a problem here,’" Taylor said. "Because if something happens (and the department did not do anything) then you have to live with the fact that somebody got hurt because you didn’t do anything."

Residents with traffic concerns can call the traffic engineering department at 770-535-6890.