Presentation by Ken Cook and Colonel Roberts.

Traffic.

And we'll have parking, so the comments are not going to be parked.

Can everybody hear me okay?

I'm hopeful.

Okay, good.

Yeah.

Alright, so I'm gonna have to mess mess around with the with the mic then.

Um so good evening, everybody.

Um I'm Ken Cook, the development engineering manager, and also here this evening uh is Brian Roberts, our traffic engineer.

So tonight we're going to be going over uh the traffic calming program.

We have a brief presentation, uh 15 minutes or so, and then there'll be lots of time left over in this time slot for questions and answers.

So with that, we'll go ahead and get started.

So this evening we're gonna touch on what traffic calming is and uh discuss some some typical traffic calming measures.

We'll provide an oversight of our traffic calming program here in the city, and we'll highlight a few recent traffic calming projects that we've accomplished, and then we'll move on to QA.

So, what exactly is traffic calming?

So per the institute of traffic engineers, traffic calming is the combination of mainly physical measures that reduce the negative effects of motor vehicle use, other driver behavior, and improve conditions for non-motorized street users.

So the really important point is that the overall intent of traffic calming is to improve safety, and primarily for pedestrians and for bicycles, but that's the non-motorized part of the definition.

So some examples of traffic calming are curb bulb outs, um radar speed displays, speed humps, traffic circles, and narrowed lanes, which may be accomplished with striping and have the effect of slowing down traffic.

So significantly uh traffic calming is not like stop signs or something like that, or adding a turn lane or something, which is another common thing that we get a lot of discussion back and forth with traffic engineering, but those are not those things are not traffic calming.

So I'm gonna go over um a high level summary of the traffic calming program steps that we have uh in our city.

Um, usually the start is with a call or an email to the city by a resident.

Um typically we coordinate and discuss the concern or request with the resident.

We ensure that the general request is applicable, feasible, and has a reasonable way forward, and we do this prior to the resident spending time on collecting signatures and/or the city investing additional time in the request.

The next step would be that those who seek the traffic calming project would then submit a petition signed by persons representing at least 51% of the homes on the street where the proposed traffic calming improvement would potentially be.

And then next the city collects data at or near that location.

Um this is typically speed and vehicle counts.

And then the following step is we using uh uh established scoring criteria that's within the program, the city determines if traffic calming is warranted.

The proposal per the program must score at least 45 points or more.

Examples of the scoring criteria include speeds, volumes, proximity to pedestrian generators, which are schools and parks, um if sidewalks are present at that location, and if the uh proposal is on established bicycle routes.

If improvements are warranted, the city will determine a few viable traffic calming treatment options.

These proposed treatment options will be presented and shared at a neighborhood meeting.

Then a proposed traffic calming option is chosen, the preferred option is provided for comment to all the residents along the applicable roadway, and if the residents approve the project, uh which is a 60% requirement per the program, then um of the eligible eligible ballots um have to be returned in order to proceed with the project.

So each traffic calming application does require an independent evaluation.

Not all streets and roads are appropriate for traffic calming treatments.

So what are some of the design considerations for traffic calming?

The functional classification of the roadway, such as if it's an arterial, a collector, or neighborhood street, roadway speeds, roadway geometry, vehicle types that are for the primary use on that particular section of road.

If that road would be an emergency vehicle route, which is identified in our current policy, specific road routes, snow plow routes, which are identified by public works, and then also maintenance requirements.

So we need to find the right solution, and each location is separate, and the right solution very much depends on the site characteristics.

So the next few slides are a few examples of traffic calming processes at work here in our city.

So the at the night 19th Avenue Southwest, which is about halfway up on 9th, kind of across from the graveyard, it's on the on the west side there.

So it's over 45, so it triggered mitigation.

The 85th percentile speed at this location was 32 miles an hour, which is seven miles per hour above the posted speed limit of 25.

And the 85th percentile speed is the speed at which 85% of the vehicles are traveling at that speed or lower.

And so we uh determine that by putting out traffic count um tubes and counting traffic, the volume and the speed.

So at that particular location, um, there are nearby pedestrian generators.

So the Piawp Loop Trail comes right down through there at that location or close to it, and there's also a community garden right there that's uh another pedestrian generator.

Also, um, in in all three of these examples, I'm going to share actually.

If at this location continuous sidewalks are not in these locations, so that's worth five points in the program per side of the street, such that if you don't have sidewalks, it's more important to have a traffic calming feature.

So in this case, there aren't sidewalks there, so that was worth 10 points of the 50.

So in this in this location, it was recommended to do some traffic calming, and it was three speed tables along this corridor.

Um the ballots from the neighborhood meeting were um favorably to proceed with that idea, and so we went ahead and built the project, um, and there's a picture of it there.

And then afterwards, um, we again counted the speeds, and and the the data collection showed 17 and a half uh miles per hour right near the Piap Loop Trail.

So that's a significant drop from 32, you know, about a 15 mile an hour drop in speed.

So indicating that you know, in that location, the speed the speed tables are doing their job.

Another location that we recently did a traffic calming on is 27th Avenue Southeast, and this is just to the east of Shaw Road off of 27th Avenue.

At this location, um the neighborhood traffic calming score was 65, so again over 45, so it triggered mitigation.

85th percentile speeds here were 37 miles an hour, which is very significant, you know, 12 miles an hour above the posted speed of 25, and that's really quite quite fast.

Um you can see the the prior picture on the right, it's before and after because we did do this, which was a striping effort, as I'll describe, but um it's a it's a drip it drops as you go as you go east and kind of comes back up the hill.

So the people were really you know really definitely uh picking up speed there.