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Traffic Calming Program
Traffic Calming Program and Policy
To download a pdf, please use this link: Traffic Calming Program PDF (219 KB)
What is the City's policy for addressing neighborhood traffic concerns?
In February 2003, the City Manager, with Council's endorsement, adopted a policy approving a Traffic Management and Calming Pilot Program. The Program offers an educational, engineering & enforcement approach to address speeding and cut-through traffic concerns on residential streets. This policy emphasizes public participation to develop traffic flow changes on public streets that are initiated by citizens and is not intended to apply to the modifications of traffic flow on public streets initiated by the City for specific traffic safety issues or to comply with State and Federal Regulations.
What are the options available under the City’s Policy?
The City‘s Neighborhood Traffic Management and Calming Program offers various options which are divided into four (4) categories to reflect the levels of cost and traffic flow restriction.The levels are based on the volume of traffic and road characteristics.
Level 1 (Local road with less than 500 vehicles per day): does not involve physical changes to the street, can be implemented by the City, and include such items as education, deploying a radar speed trailer to allow drivers to monitor their traffic speeds, directed police enforcement, posting signs to restrict commercial vehicles from using the street or restricting certain maneuvers such as right turns.
Level 2 (Local road with 500 to 3,500 or Collector road with 500 to 7,000 vehicles per day): builds on Level 1 options but may also include making a physical change to the street to affect traffic operations using such devices as road narrowing, speed humps or turn restriction medians.
Level 3 (Local road with greater than 3,500 vehicles per day): primarily applies to those local residential streets that are the main streets in the community and funnel the traffic onto and off of the adjoining collector roads and/or arterial highways.Due to this need to concentrate traffic flow, only Level 1 improvements or other alternate actions may be used. No "diversionary“ physical devices (devices that limit or force certain turns) are permitted to redirect traffic flow.
Level 4 (Collector road with greater than 7,000 vehicles per day): roads identified by use are critical elements in the overall transportation system and may only use Level 3 measures.
What kind of qualifying criteria does a city street have to meet to be covered by the City’s Policy?
Requests for traffic calming measures will be considered if all of the following criteria are met:
Local Streets:
- Posted speed limit does not exceed 25 miles per hour.
- Street must be zoned primarily as residential use.
- A minimum rate of residential development of 15 swellings fronting the street per 1,000' of roadway.
Collector Streets:
- Posted speed limit does not exceed 30 miles per hour.
- Street does not serve as primary or dedicated access to commercial or industrial sites.
- A minimum rate of residential development of 10 dwellings fronting the street per 1,000' of roadway.
| If the conditions are not met, special consideration may be given to those locations where historic districts, school zones or frequent special event traffic warrants management consideration of endorsed traffic calming as a viable solution |
How does the Neighborhood Traffic Management process start?
TYPICALLY the following process will be used by the City to address neighborhood traffic concerns:
- A resident alerts the City about a problem area that specifically involves speeding or cut-through traffic.
- The City provides information to the resident on the options available (like this pamphlet). Typically this information is mailed to the resident.
- At the same time the City will evaluate the streets eligibility and review preliminary traffic data-typical prevailing speeds and volumes. Upon completion, the City sends a second letter to the resident providing them with the findings and critical next step information.
What the City does to address the problem.
- If the street is not eligible, a traffic study maybe appropriate in lieu of the traffic calming program, which will be identified in the response letter with next step information.
- If the street is eligible, the City will offer a public meeting to present the Traffic Calming Program to the Neighborhood and explain in detail how the program continues from there.
How bad does the traffic need to be to consider Traffic Calming?
Traffic calming devices selected for consideration will be those appropriate for the type of problem identified. The Department of Engineering will field investigate those requests where a street is determined to both "eligible" and a petition of support is received by the Director of Engineering.Speeding Concerns:
The 85th percentile speed must be 8 or more miles per hour over the speed limit. (The 85th percentile speed is the speed at which 85 percent of the traffic is traveling at or below.) Speed samples will be recorded for a 24-hour period.
Cut-Thru Traffic Concerns:
Must satisfy one of the following conditions:
- Cut-thru traffic represents 40 percent or more of the total one-hour volume and a minimum 150 cut-thru trips occur in one hour.
- Cut-thru traffic represents 40 percent or more of the total volume for two consecutive hours.
What are the Petition requirements?
During this process two (2) petitions will be required, the "Petition for Traffic Calming" and the "Petition for Master Plan Support" (both of which are obtained from the City). At the first neighborhood meeting the City will ask that a "Petition for Traffic Calming" be signed by the residents representing at least 75% of the impacted area of concern. This establishes general support for the program.Once the problem is defined,the City (working with the neighborhood task force) will develop a plan of action. When possible, all measures are monitored for a period of not less than 60 days so that the impacts to the community can be ascertained. After this trial period the second petition,the "Petition for Master Plan Support" will need to signed by the residents representing at least 75% of the impacted area of concern. With this support, and approval from the City Manager, the project will move to the final phase of implementation.
(Local road with less than 500 vehicles per day): does not involve physical changes to the street, can be implemented by the City, and include such items as education, deploying a radar speed trailer to allow drivers to monitor their traffic speeds, directed police enforcement, posting signs to restrict commercial vehicles from using the street or restricting certain maneuvers such as right turns.
