Recently we received a question from a reader on whether the Town of Westford would pursue a traffic study at the corner of Oak Hill Road and Groton Road/Route 40, home to Rapid Refill and Lowell Five Bank.

While the short answer is no, the long answer is Westford doesn't need to because NMCOG already has.

The Northern Middlesex Council of Governments, or NMCOG, is the regional planning agency for Westford and several other towns in the greater Lowell area, and part of their mandate is helping municipalities with some planning projects, such as certain traffic studies.

NMCOG released a report of vehicles per day noted at over 40 intersections throughout Westford and other nearby towns, including studies done through the past 12 years on their own and through other government agencies and private firms.

The most recent report from 2011 puts the number of vehicles going through the intersection each day at 4,800.

Since Groton Road is a state highway, putting a traffic light there would need to go through the MUTCD traffic signal warrants that would make a light there a very low priority, particularly given the fact that the 2011 study at that intersection actually had fewer vehicles per day than the 2008 study there.