This policy is designed to provide a process through which residents can request traffic calming measures within neighborhoods.
(A) Step 1: Education and Enforcement.
(1) Before requesting the city's neighborhood traffic-calming program, residents should first pursue neighborhood speed-reduction options with the Division of Police Traffic Enforcement Unit. If such efforts have not been pursued, the city will advise the requesting applicant as to programs they would need to initiate prior to proceeding with a traffic-calming evaluation request. Once these options have been pursued, and if the city has determined these initiatives to be ineffective, staff will then advise the residents to proceed with the neighborhood traffic-calming program.
(2) If a neighborhood feels these strategies have been ineffective, the neighborhood may then choose to proceed to request evaluation for traffic calming measures. The neighborhood must deliver the request to the Division of Engineering. City staff will evaluate to what extent other actions have been pursued by the residents of the requesting area and determine whether these steps have been effective. If efforts, such as requests for increased enforcement, the use of a StealthStat in the neighborhood, and neighborhood speed watch programs have been used by the residents and city staff has determined them ineffective in the reduction of volume, speed, non-local, or cut-through traffic, and accidents, then the request will proceed to the next step.
(B) Step 2: Engineering/Study Process.
(1) City receives request. A request for the evaluation for traffic-calming measures may be initiated by any resident of the city. A resident/neighborhood may request an affected area be defined at any time during the year.
(2) Pre-qualification of street. Traffic calming measures are suitable in residential areas to manage speed, volume and cut-through traffic. Therefore, characteristics of the streets must be residential in nature. The street pre-qualifications are designed to ensure that the street segment is appropriate for considering traffic calming. Since some negative impacts can be associated with traffic-calming measures, some restrictions, in the best interest of emergency and transit services, are included on the list of pre-qualifications. Streets should meet the following standards in order to pre-qualify for traffic calming.
(a) The street has a posted speed limit of 25 mph or less;
(b) The street is classified as a local or collector on the city's thoroughfare plan;
(c) The street has a right-of-way that is 60 feet wide or less;
(d) The street has a standard curb and gutter cross section, and/or all drainage and safety concerns can be addressed to the satisfaction of the City Engineer;
(e) The street is at least 1,000 feet in length;
(f) The street is not a cul-de-sac street;
(g) The street is not a loop street within a neighborhood or subdivision;
(h) The street is not along a COTA bus route;
(i) A fire station is neither on the street nor is the street a critical emergency response route. A list of critical emergency response routes can be found at the end of this program (See Resolution No. 11-04, passed March 15, 2004); and
(j) This program applies only to existing streets. It does not apply to future roads or to new subdivision streets under construction. If an existing subdivision street is intended to be extended in the future, then it must be at least 75% complete with the termination point known.
If the street meets all of the above pre-qualification standards, the request proceeds to the next step. When appropriate, if the street does not meet all of these standards and residents still feel traffic-calming measures are necessary, staff will consider further evaluation of the street.
(3) Affected area defined. Once a street has met the pre-qualification standards, the affected area will then be defined. Such determination will be completed by the City Manager or the City Manager's designee.
(4) Petition required by the city. Following a determination of the affected area, the city will provide the base petition form to the resident(s). The resident(s) will complete the petition identifying specific issues described in the space provided on the petition to the best extent possible that the neighborhood wants to have addressed. This petition is to be circulated by the resident(s) requesting evaluation for traffic-calming measures. Only one signature per household/property owner will be accepted. If a home is leased or rented, only the signature of the owner of the dwelling will be accepted. If an apartment complex/building(s) is located on the affected street or within the affected area, only the signature of the owner or owner's representative of the apartment complex/building will be accepted for the purposes of achieving the required percentage on the petitions. If a business is located on the affected street or within the affected area, only the signature of the owner or owner's representative of the building where the business is located will be accepted for purposes of achieving the required percentage on the petitions. There is a 12 month time limit on starting the petition process and returning a completed petition to the city for validation. In addition, the petition must be returned to the city by July 1 of each year to begin the traffic calming evaluation process that year.
(5) Petition received by the city. Once received, the petition will be reviewed and validated by the city. In order for the request to proceed, the petition must contain signatures from 67% of the households in the affected area and 90% of the households on the affected street. The petition must be returned to the city by July 1 of the calendar year in order begin the traffic calming evaluation process that year. Once the petition has been validated by city staff, the request will be forwarded to Council for their acceptance of the study need and the appropriation of funding for the study. This will be done on an individual request basis.
(6) Comprehensive study completed. There can be two stages of the comprehensive study.
(a) Stage 1: Once streets are pre-qualified, the appropriate percentages of signatures are received and validated, and City Council concurs with need to conduct the study, the city will perform a comprehensive study of the affected area. The study will be performed by a qualified professional traffic engineer. The study will include collecting speed, volume, non-local, or cut-through traffic, and accident data along the routes and analyze the effect of the traffic-calming measures on city services. The study will also examine existing traffic control measures along the street. If any existing device, such as a stop sign, is found to be unwarranted it is subject to removal regardless of whether the street receives treatment for traffic calming. The goal of Stage 1 is to determine whether traffic-calming measures are necessary on the affected street and whether Stage 2 should be implemented.
(b) Stage 2: If necessary and recommended by the Stage 1 report, the study will be expanded to determine impacts to other neighborhood streets if traffic-calming measures were installed on the affected street. Stage 2 will also identify traffic-calming options/conceptual plans for the affected street.
(7) Street priority. Through a point system, the data gathered in the comprehensive study will then be used to establish: whether a street receives enough points to warrant any measures; whether localized traffic calming measures are warranted on the affected street, and whether the street warrants a traffic calming comprehensive plan and the associated street priority ranking. The point system will be according to the following criteria:
(a) Speed.
1. Two points for each 1 mph the average 85th percentile speed falls between 30-32 mph.
2. Three points for each 1 mph the average 85th percentile speed falls between 32-35 mph.
3. Five points for each 1 mph the average 85th percentile exceeds 35 mph.
4. If the average 85th percentile speed is less than 30 mph, the street will not be considered for traffic calming.
(b) Volume. Local and collector streets.
1. One point for each 100 vehicles over the number of households served by the affected street multiplied by the average number of vehicle trips per day generated by the household, as defined by the Institute for Transportation Engineers Trip Generation Manual, current edition. Based on subsequent program criteria, 20% is the threshold value for acceptable through trips. Therefore, the product of the number of households and the appropriate trip generation rate(s) is then to be multiplied by 1.2 to allow for an acceptable amount of through trips. The formula for calculating the acceptable volume on a roadway is this:
Nhouseholds * Tgeneration rate * 1.2 = Ttotal
Where Nhouseholds = number of households in the affected area,
Tgeneration rate = applicable trip generation rate
Ttotal = total trips for affected street
2. Minus one point for each 100 vehicles below the number of households served by the affected street multiplied by the average number of vehicle trips per day generated by the household, as defined by the Institute for Transportation Engineers Trip Generation Manual. This number is then to be multiplied by 1.2 to allow for an acceptable amount of through trips. See equation above for calculating the acceptable amount of traffic volume on a roadway.
(c) Cut-through traffic. One-half point for each 1% the percentage of cut-through traffic exceeds 20%.
(d) Accidents. Two points for each percent the accident-severity ratio/percentage for the street exceeds that of the citywide average over the last three years. No deduction of points will be made if the street has an accident-severity ratio/percentage less than the citywide average over the last three years. The accident severity ratio is to be calculated on a yearly basis for the preceding three years.
(e) Pedestrian generators. The street shall receive points for having each of the following:
1. Street has a school zone: 3 points
2. Street provides direct access to a city park: 2 points
3. Other public facility: 1 point
Examples include, but are not limited to: bikepath access points, tunnels, soccer fields, and municipal pools.
The points will be totaled in a chart similar to the one below. If there is more than one street that has requested traffic calming, the streets will be ranked in order from the most points to the least points in a table similar to the one found below. If a street has between 20-35 points, it may receive localized treatments. A street must have a minimum of 35 points in order to qualify for traffic-calming measures. If a street does not have enough points to qualify for traffic-calming measures, then city staff will continue to work with the residents/neighborhood with the education and enforcement components of this program.
Street Name | Street Type | Volume | 85th Percentile | % Cut- Through | Volume Points | Speed Points | Cut- Through Points | Acci- dents | Pedestrian Generator | Total Points |
(C) Step 3: Engineering/Conceptual Plans & Implementation.
(1) Traffic-calming measures selection process. Working with the residents in the affected area, city staff will select an appropriate type of traffic-calming measure(s) for the street. Unless determined warranted by the traffic calming evaluation process, stop signs and traffic signals are not considered traffic-calming measures for the purpose of this program. Concurrence of 85% of the households in both the affected area and on the affected street will be required, by means of a second petition, upon the type of traffic-calming measure(s) to be implemented. Landscaping, for the purposes of this program, will be installed only as a traffic-calming measure. Additional landscaping/aesthetic treatments will be installed as determined necessary by the City Engineer and at the direction of the City Council.
(2) Funding and installation. Following the selection of traffic-calming measures, the street will be placed on a priority list for funding and installation. Based on the level of funding allocated for this purpose, streets shall be funded beginning with the highest ranked street. If all streets contained on the list cannot be funded during a year, the list will be carried over to the next year. Any new streets added to the list in a following year will be ranked below those already placed on the priority list. However, Council always has right to adjust priority funding based on available resources.
(Res. 42-99, passed 10-4-99; Am. Res. 11-04, passed 3-15-04)