HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-08-2003 TRAFFIC COMMISSION MINUTES TRAFFIC COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES
• JULY 8, 2003
MEMBERS ATTENDING: MAYOR NANCOLAS, CHIEF SOBBA, CHIEF ALLCOTT,
STEVEN HASSON, AND GORDON LAW.
NEW BUSINESS:
l. Request to review options for continuation of Spruce Street between 10`�' and
Montana; a group of citizens who live in the area of Spruce and Fircrest attended and
presented the attached documents. The spokesperson for the group was Gary Deulen.
Chuck Randolph was also in attendance representing the Caldwell School District.
We discussed several options that could be considered in the development of Spruce
St. in this area. Some of the key issues identified had to do with traffic speed, drop-
off of students, providing bike and pedestrian paths and other options for routing of
the street. Gordon will pass on this information to the City Council in planning on
how to address these issues. They requested that their packet be passed on to the
council.
2. Request to improve marking of bike paths — discussed how much actual bike traffic
there is and what should be done to make bike path more identifiable. Determined
that at this time the Council had required the paths and therefore we should mark
them. Action: C�ordon will have the paths marked with appropriate stencils in the
path.
3. Request to remove tree blocking stop sign visibility on Main at Kimball — determined
� that we do not want to remove the tree and need to find alternative way for sign
visibility. Action: Gordon will have street sign personnel extend the sign on arms
until the tree can get some height.
4. Request to post signs identifying the Steunenberg Residential Historic District —
Action: Steven Hasson will coordinate with Gordon in the street dept. on the
location of the signs. The Historic Preservation Comm. will provide sign materials
and the City will install.
5. Review of speeding on Freeport and 9` — Action: Chief Sobba will make contact
with requesting party to identify options for problem presented.
6. Request for crosswalks at the intersections of 12 Ave. and Dearborn, Everett and
Fillmore and at 5` and Hamson and 5` and Paynter. Action: approved with the
exception of the one on Paynter. Gordon will have them painted.
7. Request to restrict on street parking in front of 2814 S. Indiana — discussed the
options and determined that the normal vision triangles would be adequate. Action:
Gordon will have the curbs painted for no parking in the 40' vision triangle.
8. Request to review speeding problem in the 1100 block of E. Logan. Action: Chief
Sobba will have someone contact the reporting party to review situation.
9. Request to reduce speed on Indiana between the High School and Indiana — Action:
Approved request to post 30 mph on Indiana north of Ustick to the High School in
both directions. Mayor will make the contacts with Optimists and Mr. Crookham
and Gordon will see that signs are posted.
•
10. Request by Officer Hodnett to post speed limit on Washington between Logan and
• Linden. Action: Approved that both directions will be posted 30 mph. Gordon will
have it done. It was already posted 30 mph for one direction.
11. STEP Team — Sobba informed the commission that the STEP team is now staffed and
if there are specific issues that need to be addressed to let him know.
12. Long-range signal projects — Gordon informed the commission that a project for 10`
and Linden is on the 6-year plan for upgrade of the intersection, but no signals.
Another project for bridges on Indian Creek at 11` and 21 Ave. aze also on the plan.
13. Gordon also inquired as to any problems with the city doing the weed control and
none were mentioned.
14. Stop signs on Ustick — Chief Allcott informed the commission that the Canyon
Highway District has approved the changing of stop signs on Ustick at Montana,
Indiana and Florida. Montana will become the stop direction and Ustick the through
street and the same at Florida. Indiana will be come a 4-way stop at this point.
Those changes will take place Aug. 4.
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• Extending Spruce Street.....
Construding roads is a poterrtially controv+ersial process, frequently pitting angry ta�ayers against their
elected officials and professional staff. Road corstruction and sprawl are nelated iss�.�es that have
generafied controv�ersy in Cakiwell. Excluding the conclemnation of property for right-of-way, there is
nothing more emotionally charged for people than a proposed diange in their neighborhood that they feel
will potentially threafien their safety, decrease their property value, or degrade their quality of life.
When c�nstructing roads, conv�ntional engineering practice requires the use of a set of automobile-
oentered d�;ign starxiards. The foc� of these standards is to move the maximum number of motorized
vehicles through the system as rapidly as possible. They ignore the effecls of automobile traffic on the
surrounding environment and neighbofioods.
If the goal of these design standards is to widen, flatten, and straighten city streets to:
� Accommodafie s�eeding (85"' peroenti le design speed);
• Accommodate impaired driving (design driver);
� Accommodabe estimafied traffic volumes 20 years in the future (remote design yea� and
� Eliminate road�ray variatioris that give local charter, then
they are more appropriate for a highway where mobility is the ov�erriding �m. They are not
appropriafie for neighbo►t�oods where residents want to r�etain diarader and improve pedestrian safety. In
seeking to provide the ultimafie in comfort and conv�enience for the motorist, tF�ese design standards
• complet+ely fail to corisider or acknowledge their effects on the diaracter of the neighborhood and lifestyle ``�{,,
that form the heart of the city. ���
This automobile-centered approach is especially destructive to a neighbofiood where local travel pattems a�,
are diarac�rized primarily by non-motorized use of the roadway. Children on foot or bicycle are ��
imperiled by the fas�er traffic on "improv�ed° roads. We believe ttrat while commuter bicyctists c�n t�se �;
shoulders, especially when they are marked as bicycle lanes, shoulders are not c�mfortable o� saf�e plaoes �"
to walk, especially for children. Shoulders are desigr�ed as an automobile breakdawn spaoe. Pedestrians
use ttiem only be�e they have nowhere else to walk. The proximity to high�pee�i traffic makes ';�'�,
shoulders uncomfortable and ur�safe plaoes to be. � 1
2. ; �
4: : \
P�eople want projeGs that enhanoe their neighborhoods. New thinking is r�ssary to protect ��, ��'
ne hborhoods and communities from the da �° '
�g r�gers of traffic. ���� -, ;
, .
Design Standards and Other Engineering Considerations
The bible of conv�entional road design is titled, "A Policy on Geometric Design of Highway and Streeis°,
publist�ed by The American A,ssociation of State Highway arxi Trar�sp�ortation Officials (AASHTO) and
also known as the "green book". The G�en Book states, "The speed selected for design should fit
travel habits and desires of near/y all motorists" It tends to ignore entirely other important functions
of the road corridor such as safe access for children, bicyclist, pedestrians and other potential users sud�
a� equestrians. Too often roads are restnactured bec��se of capacity conoems and are b�ed on estimafied
� future traffic volumes and rmt existing problems.
� if the recor�s�truction of Spruce Street is based on problems invoiving10"' Street and Linden or 10�' Street
and Ustick, address the problem, do not simpiy shift the problem.
If a level of servioe study has been conducted, and the roads graded on their ability to achieve a good
" level of servioe", it should be pointed out ttrat this is just a proxy for speed. "The conoept of lev�el of
service is defined as a qualitative rn�sure describing operational conditions within a traffic str�m, and
their perc�eption by motorists or pa�r�gers." A level-of-service definition gerierally de�ribed tt�
conditions in temis of such factors as speed and trav�l time, freeciom to maneuv�er, traffic interruptioris,
comfort and conv�nience, and safety. A road may be given a poor grade based on this narrowly defined
perFormanoe for a brief portion of the day or may ev�en be graded poorly based on projectioris rather than
reality.
I n this manner tocfay's roads are desigr�ed for the "operational efficiency (speed), comfort, safety, and
convenienoe" of the worst driver, speeding in the largest vehicle, in the worst traffic 20 years from now.
The result of this speed-centered approach is a roadway that is wider, straighfier, flatter, and faster than the
road it replaoed. The starxiards never discuss nor admowledge the trade-0ffs �ssociated with this
aPP�oad�:
• Decr�sed safety for children
• Decreased comfort and saf�ty for people walking or bicycling
� Loss of right-of-way sp�ce for a separate trail or path
• Loss of neighborhood integritv
• Increased noise
• Increased traffic
• Increased air and water pollution
• � Increased dev�eloprr��t (sprawl)
• Loss of neighborhood d�aracter
� Decre�d property values for adjoining landowners
Be� oonventional road design standards focus primarily on the roads themselves they treat the
surrounding home.s, schools and neighborhood as empty spaoe through which motorized vehicles must be
trar�sported as rapidly, corrrfortably, and conv�eriiently as possible. How�ever neighborhoods ane full of
people who are somewhere rather than going somewhere. Neighborhood streets are important
public spaces where the residents take a walk, jog, rr�t their neighbors, and let their children walk or
bike.
Public Health and Safety
In the U.S. six thousand pedestria� are killed every year, 90,000 are injured. A pedestrian or bicyclist is
injured every three and one-half minutes. Sixteen pe�ent of all people killed in motor v�ehicle accidents
are pedestrians or bicyclisis. These de�tt�s �d injuries are vastly out of proportion to the pre,9erxe of
pe�s�tria� and bicyclists on the riation's stre�ts arxi roads. Thirty-nine percent of all children aged 12
and younger who are killed in motor vehicle accidents are killed while walking or riding bicycles. In the
U.S. in 1994, 806 children wer�e killed arxJ 30,000 injured as pedestrians. The causes of these depressing
statistics are rooted in the way w�e have been designing our roads. It is time for diarige.
Providing deoent conditions for pedestrians and bicyclisis is not just a matter of public safety. It is a
� matter of faimess and civic r�sspor�sibility. Many of our citizens cannot drive, beca�e of age, physical
disability, or other reasor�s. These people, and anyone else who decides to go for a walk, shouid be �ile o
� have reasor�ably safe conditioru as they venture out onto the roads that link their homes to thoee of their
neighbors and everything else in their community. Bicycl ists and pede.striaris are also users of the
roadway and deserve equal cor�sideration. After all, they are the most wlnerable uSers of the facility.
And of course in every neighbort�ood the safety and mobility of children must be given the highest
priority.
Safety vs. Speed
The most important consideration in designing a safie roadv�ay is the speed of the automobile traffic. By
increasing traffic speed, conventional road projects may ach�ally fail to meet the public goals that are said
to justify them. Studies have shown that regardless of posfied speed limits; motorists drive faster wheri
given the a�shion of a wider road and gr�fier sight distarxes. When motorisis dive faster, pedestrian and
bicyclist accidenfs are mo� likely and mone serious. The likelihood that a pedestrian or bicyclist will be
hit increases at higher speecls beca�.�se a motorist's ability to take in the surrounding environment beoanes
more limited.
The probability of a pedestrian or bicyclist being killed is 3.5 % when stnack by a vehicle traveling at 15
miles per hour, but increases more than tenfold at 37% at 31 miles per hour and incxeases to 83% at 44
milee� per hour. Ped�trian injuries also inc� in s�verity with v�ehicle speed. As a 1994 study puts it,
an injury's severity "depe� primarily on the car's speed at impact with the pecl�trian.° The study ranks
injuries on a scale of one (no injury) to six (fatality), and states that, in general, injury severity is one and
one half at 20 miles per hour, four at 30 miles per hour, and six at speecls greafier th� 35-40 miles per
hour.
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' 3215 Fircrest Ave
Caldwell ID 83605
• June 20, 2003
Gordon Law
Caldwell City Traffic Commission
621 E Cleveland
Caldwell ID 83605
RE: Connecting Spruce Street from l Oth Avenue to Montana Street
Dear Mr. Law,
It is my understanding that there is. a plan under consideration to continue Spruce Street from
Fircrest Avenue toward Montana Street. My neighbors and I, residents of Spruce St. and Fircrest
Ave., are concerned about the changes that will occur in our quiet, peaceful neighborhood with
the increased traffic flow if Spruce St. is continued toward Montana St. and request permission
to address the Tra.�ic Commission directly with our concerns.
Because Jefferson.3r. High School borders the south side of the proposed continuation, there are
many children who use Fircrest Ave. to get to and from school. There are kids on bicycles,
walking and being dropped off or picked up by older brothers or sisters and parents. Sometimes
the kids cross in group`s, pushing each other and generally behaving`Tike children. People using
Spruce St. as a cross street from 10� Ave. to Montana St. would be hurrying to drop kids off on
• their way ta work or school. ;
The .continuation of Spruce St. would involve a short'section of Fircrest Ave.,'and would create
two dangerous blind corners with a very short distance in between. The danger would not only
be to students going to and from school (arid the cars stopped to drop off or pick up kids), but
would include residents whose driveways are the near the corners, as visibility would be only a
few feet for traffic coming around those corners. The resident in the middle of the Fircrest Ave.
section (that's me) would ha.ve double jeopardy e�ting the driveway, as there would be limited
visibility from both directions.
Another concern is the narrawness of the streets involved. If cars are parked on both sides of the
street in front of the residences, there is room for only one car to safely pass through at a time.
We are also concerned abouf the very likely probability of a car missing the turn and ending up
in our yards, hitting our parked cars or, in my case, running into my son's bedroom. If that were
to accur at night, when the bedroom is occupied, the result would be disastrous.
Enclosed'are photos of our streets. ' Thank you for your cc�nsideration. ' `
Respectfully yours, ,
�
Marty Cam bell
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