HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-09-10; Traffic Safety Commission; ; Update on the Carlsbad Residential Traffic Management ProgramCITY OF CARLSBAD
TRAFFIC SAFETY COMMISSION
STAFF REPORT
COMMISSION MEETING OF: September 10, 2012 ITEMNO.6A
LOCATION: Citywide
INITIATED BY: Bryan Jones, Deputy Transportation Director
John Kim, Associate Engineer PREPAREDY BY:
Jim Murray, Associate Engineer
REQUESTED ACTION: Update on the Carlsbad Residential Traffic Management Program.
BACKGROUND:
DATA:
The Carlsbad Residential Traffic Management Program (CRTMP) was revised in May of 2011.
The main purpose of the revision was into introduce a new Phase II that incorporated cost-
effective traffic management features such as residential STOP signs, speed cushions, speed
tables and striping, as well as introducing threshold criteria for each of the three phases of the
program.
Safety and speeding in residential areas is a concern for many residents in Carlsbad. These
concerns can be personal and of an emotional nature as the streets are environments where these
individuals live and play. It can be difficult for some residents to consider their street in the
context of other residential streets throughout the City of Carlsbad. It is staff's responsibility take
each of these concerns seriously and to evaluate each residential street objectively and without
prejudice. In many cases, staff has determined that many of the speeding concerns on residential
streets are a result of speeding neighbors that don't realize the impact of driving faster than 25
MPH on a residential street. Speeding is often the result of an individual or a few residents and
not the majority of the residential street users. In many cases, the enforcement efforts by the
Police Department find very few, if any, motorists traveling at speeds high enough to issue a
citation. The Transportation and Police Departments work closely together through a
collaborative engineering and enforcement process during the CRTMP process.
As the CRTMP states, "The City Council established the Carlsbad Residential Tr(!f{ic
Management Program as a countermeasure to intrusion by excessive traffic and/or higher than
normal vehicle speeds in the neighborhood and thus, to help improve the quality of life. With a
defined traffic management process and established procedures contained in the CRTMP,
Carlsbad residents will have the measures and techniques ("tools") at their disposal to avert
many negative impacts associated with vehicular traffic on residential streets".
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CITY OF CARLSBAD
TRAFFIC SAFETY COMMISSION
STAFF REPORT
COMMISSION MEETING OF:
( continued)
September 10, 2012
The goals of our traffic management program include:
• Improving the quality of life in the neighborhood
ITEMNO.6A
• Creating safe streets by reducing the collision frequency and severity
• Reducing negative effects of motorized vehicles
• Design of features that encourage self-enforcement
The CRTMP established three phases to address traffic volumes and speeding concerns on
residential streets. The purpose of these three phases is to provide a best value, cost effective
approach by incrementally increasing the magnitude of the applied solutions in a logical manner.
When a resident calls the Transportation Department to express a concern for traffic volumes
and/or speeding on their residential street, staff works with the Carlsbad Police Department to
utilize evaluation, engineering, education, and enforcement efforts to address those concerns.
Emails and calls are regularly shared between the Transportation and Police Departments to
identify the severity of any speeding issue and to work collaboratively toward a solution. This
initiates Phase I as described below.
Phase I focuses on the human element of driver behavior and includes such applications as
education, police presence and enforcement, evaluations, installing speed limit signs, utilization
of temporary speed feedback signs (fixed on a street light pole), speed limit pavement legends on
the roadway, warning signs, and a neighborhood speed monitoring program. The speed
monitoring program utilizes residents who are encouraged to write down the license plate number
of vehicles observed to be speeding. This information is reported to the Traffic Division of the
Carlsbad Police Department, who then makes contact with the vehicle's registered owner and a
warning is issued with information regarding the 25 MPH residential speed limit and to pass
along the concerns that residents have about speeding.
If the Phase I solutions do not adequately address the issues, residents can request moving to
Phase II of the CRTMP. However, the threshold for Phase II eligibility is a minimum critical
speed of 32 MPH. This threshold was set so that city resources could be most effectively
allocated for the highest priority needs. Residential streets with critical speeds of 3 I MPH or
lower were not considered by the Traffic Safety Commission or by staff to have a "higher than
normal" vehicle speed. The critical speed, otherwise known as the 85th percentile speed is the
speed at which 85% of the drivers drive at or below. The critical speed is NOT the average
speed, which by definition, is much lower than the critical speed.
Phase II utilizes cost-effective physical traffic management devices such as residential STOP
signs, speed tables, speed cushions, high visibility crosswalks, narrowing travel lanes with
striping, and neighborhood signs. It should be noted that consensus support of the residents that
live on the street would be required before these measures could be implemented. Many residents
may want traffic calming on their street, but some do not want it in front of their house. The
expressed concern for speeding on any residential street may only be a single individual and the
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CITY OF CARLSBAD
TRAFFIC SAFETY COMMISSION
STAFF REPORT
COMMISSION MEETING OF:
(continued)
September 10, 2012 ITEMNO.6A
public meeting process and surveys described in Phase II of the approved program are designed
to determine if consensus support for traffic calming exists.
If the Phase II solutions do not adequately address the issues on the residential street then
residents can request moving to Phase III of the CRTMP.
Phase III utilizes more expensive physical traffic calming devices that change the character or
nature of an intersection or roadway and includes "traditional traffic calming" features such as
limiting access or tum restriction to a residential street reducing cut-through traffic, textured
pavement, entry pavement, center island narrowing, curb radius reductions, traffic circles, raised
intersections, mid-block choker, lateral shift in lanes, chicanes, intersection bulb-out, realigned
intersections, forced turn channelization, median barriers, semi-diverter, partial diverter, and
diagonal diverter.
Eligibility for Phase III consideration is determined using a Phase III Qualification Criteria. The
criteria considers factors such as travel speeds, traffic volumes, collision history, absence of
sidewalks, proximity to schools and presence of marked crosswalks and utilizes a points
assignment system. A minimum criteria score of 51 points is required for candidate streets to be
considered for Phase III.
With the newly approved three-phase CRTMP, the city now has a comprehensive and efficient
method to address speeding issues on residential streets.
During the CRTMP revision process, requests for traffic calming on residential streets were put
on temporary hold. It was critically important for staff to finalize a program whereby the highest
priority needs of the entire community could be considered and the most effective utilization of
available funds and resources ensured. During the revision process, staff in both Transportation
and the Police Departments continued to utilize solutions from Phase I on streets that were
experiencing speeding concerns.
The temporary hold resulted in a waiting list of twenty-four residential streets requesting Phase II
consideration. As stated in the CRTMP, not all residential streets will qualify to participate in
Phase II of the program based on the established eligibility criteria (streets should have an 85th
percentile critical speed of 32 MPH or greater). Streets not eligible for Phase II would still have
access to Phase I.
Staff has determined that nine residential streets out of the twenty-four streets under request for
traffic calming have met the minimum eligibility criteria for Phase II. The remaining fifteen
streets have not met the minimum eligibility criteria for Phase and will not be considered for
Phase II improvements at this time. The order in which staff is addressing the nine eligible streets
for Phase II was determined using such factors as critical speed, traffic volumes, collision history,
presence of sidewalks and proximity to schools and is reflected in Table I.
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CITY OF CARLSBAD
TRAFFIC SAFETY COMMISSION
STAFF REPORT
COMMISSION MEETING OF:
( continued)
September 10, 2012
TABLE 1:
Streets Eligible for Phase II Traffic Calming
I. Magnolia Avenue (Highland Drive to Pio Pico Drive)
2. Esfera Street (Cadencia Street to Piragua Street)
3. Levante Street (Escenico Terrace to La Costa Avenue)
4. Chestnut Avenue (Pontiac Drive to Sierra Morena Avenue)
5. Corintia Street (Alga Road to El Fuerte Street)
6. Daisy Avenue (Rose Drive to Batiquitos Drive)
7. Pontiac Drive (Victoria Avenue to Spokane Way)
8. Trieste Drive (Chestnut Avenue to Milano Drive)
9. Estrella de Mar Road (Alga Road to Arena! Road)
ITEMNO.6A
Staff has drafted proposed Phase II plans, completed the required public meetings and surveys,
obtained support from the neighborhoods for the first three qualified streets and will present those
plans to the Traffic Safety Commission at the October meeting for their review and
recommendation to the City Council.
RECOMMENDATION:
Information item only, to update the Traffic Safety Commission on the Carlsbad Residential
Traffic Management Program in preparation of bring the first three streets qualified for Phase II
traffic calming to the Traffic Safety Commission at their October meeting.
NECESSARY CITY COUNCIL ACTION:
No City Council action is required at this time.
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