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Home My WebLink About2019-06-20; Carlsbad Residential Traffic Management Program; Gomez, PazTo the members of the: CITY COUNCIL Dat~dD/l'ICA 'If CC V CM_ COO ,/ DCM {3) 1,/ June 20, 2019 To: From: Via: Re: Council Memorandum Honorable Mayor Hall and Members of the City Council Paz Gomez, Deputy City Manager, Public W_ft,rks../ Elaine Lu key, Chief Operations Officer V- Carlsbad Residential Traffic Management Program {city of Carlsbad Memo ID# 2019069 This memorandum provides an overview of the Carlsbad Residential Traffic Management Program (CRTMP), which guides implementation of the city's traffic calming program on residential streets. Background The CRTMP was developed to address safety and speeding concerns on residential streets. Originally approved in 2001 and updated in 2011, the CRTMP has served to counter excessive traffic volumes and speeds that may exist in residential neighborhoods and thereby, helped improve the quality of life. Discussion The CRTMP defines the traffic management strategy and establishes the procedures to reduce the negative impacts associated with vehicular traffic on residential streets. The goals of the CRTMP include: • Improving quality of life in neighborhoods • Creating safe streets by reducing collision frequency and severity • Reducing negative effects of vehicular speeding • Utilizing features that are self-enforcing. The CRTMP describes three phases to address 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 applied solutions as needed to achieve goals. When a resident calls the Public Works Branch to express a concern regarding speeding and/or cut-through traffic on their residential street, staff collaborates with the Police Department to utilize engineering, education and enforcement efforts to address those concerns. These resident contacts are shared between the Public Works Branch and Police Department to identify the severity of the reported speeding issue and to work collaboratively toward a solution. This call from a resident would initiate Phase I of the CRTMP as described below. Phase I focuses on the human element of driver behavior and leverages strategies such as education, police presence and enforcement, evaluation, installing speed limit signs and pavement legends, and deployment of temporary speed feedback signs. The temporary speed Public Works Branch Faraday Center 1635 Faraday Avenue I Carlsbad, CA 92008 I 760-602-2730 Honorable Mayor Hall and Members of the City Council June 20, 2019 Page 2 feedback signs serve a dual purpose: collection of speed data and as a temporary speed reduction feature. They are usually deployed for a period of two weeks. During the first week, the display is turned off, and the unit is used to collect speed data. During the second week of deployment, the display is turned on and used as an educational tool for drivers and to help reduce speeding. Phase I solutions are usually implemented at the staff level and may include work orders for installation of signs and pavement legends. Depending on the availability of the temporary speed feedback signs and the type of work proposed, Phase I can last between four to six months. If the Phase I solutions do not adequately address the reported issues, Phase II of the CRTMP can be considered. The threshold for Phase II eligibility is a minimum critical speed of 32 miles per hour (MPH), determined through the data collected by the temporary speed feedback signs described above. This threshold was set so that city resources could be most effectively allocated for the highest priority traffic safety needs. Residential streets with critical speeds of 31 MPH or lower were not considered by the Traffic Safety Commission or 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, as described in the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, represents one standard deviation above the average speed and is used for speed zoning purposes. Phase II of the CRTMP is initiated automatically when speed measurements indicate a critical speed of 32 MPH or higher. Phase II utilizes cost-effective physical traffic management devices such as traffic circles, speed cushions and tables, high-visibility crosswalks, narrowing travel lanes with striping, and neighborhood signs. Per the CRTMP, consensus support ofthe community is required before these Phase II measures are implemented. The first step toward establishing consensus is a neighborhood meeting. Property owners (both residing and non-residing) within the project study area are invited to attend a neighborhood meeting organized by staff. At the meeting, staff presents traffic calming strategies and options tailored to their individual street. Input provided by the meeting attendees is used to develop a preferred concept plan for traffic calming. After the meeting, a mail survey is used to determine neighborhood support for the traffic calming plan developed at the neighborhood meeting. The surveys are sent to all property owners within the project study area. The CRTMP requires that at least 50% of the mailed surveys be returned to constitute a valid survey and that a support rate of 67% or more is required to indicate positive community support for the proposed plan. If these consensus requirements are satisfied, the proposed traffic calming plan is brought before the Traffic Safety Commission for their recommendation and to the City Council for their consideration. If the City Council approves the traffic calming plan, the project enters the design phase, which will result in a set of construction plans for implementation. It can take between 6-12 months for staff to work with a neighborhood through the Phase II process. If implementation of the Phase II solutions does not adequately address the reported issues, residents can request moving to Phase Ill of the CRTMP. Honorable Mayor Hall and Members of the City Council June 20, 2019 Page 3 Phase Ill 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 turn restriction to a residential street to reduce cut-through traffic, textured pavement, entry pavement, center island narrowing, curb radius reductions, raised intersections, mid-block chokers, 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 Ill consideration is determined using Phase Ill Qualification Criteria to be conducted by staff. The criteria consider such factors 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 Ill. With the three-phase CRTMP, the city has a comprehensive and effici.ent strategy to address excessive traffic volumes and speeding issues on residential streets. Last year, the CRTMP resulted in construction of traffic calming improvements on Corintia Street, Daisy Avenue, Cadencia Street and Harbor Drive. The following nine streets are currently qualified for but have not yet completed Phase II of the program: Amargosa Drive, Basswood Avenue, Hillside Drive, Avenida Diestro, Estrella de Mar Road, Harwich Drive, Segovia Way, Avenida Pantera and La Golondrina Street. Neighborhood meetings for Amargosa Drive, Basswood Avenue and Hillside Drive have been completed, and staff has tentatively scheduled to complete neighborhood meetings for the remainder of the streets before end of the year. To date, Phase Ill of the CRTMP has not been implemented on any street in Carlsbad. Next Steps The nine streets that have qualified for Phase II improvements will continue through the CRTMP collaboration process between staff and the neighborhoods. Upcoming neighborhood meetings will be held for Avenida Diestro, Estrella de Mar Road, Harwich Drive, Segovia Way, Avenida Pantera and La Golondrina Street. cc: Scott Chadwick, City Manager Celia Brewer, City Attorney Neil Gallucci, Police Chief Marshall Plantz, Transportation Director John Maashoff1 Public Works Manager Amanda Guy, Deputy City Attorney Massoud Saberian, Cit/Traffic Engineer John Kim, Senior Engineer