vision2020@moscow.com: traffic calming on Polka Street
traffic calming on Polka Street
Bill London (london@wsunix.wsu.edu)
Tue, 13 May 1997 08:58:04 -0700 (PDT)
At our recent 2020 steering committee meeting, I discussed the present
status of the traffic calming proposal for the residential block where I
live (Polk Street between Third and Sixth). The other steering committee
members urged me to post this info to the list--so here's the story of
what is becoming a bizarre hobby for me.
Last year, I attended several meetings of the Moscow city Public Works
Committee. The committee was very supportive of adding traffic calming
devices to our street to slow traffic, increase feelings of safety, and
build community. The committee offered some monetary assistance, but said
that most of the cost must be borne by the residents (using an LID--local
improvement district). We circulated an LID petition and got the needed
60% support.
This year there is a new committee. Hodge and Palmer are gone,
Pall remains, Johnson and LeCLaire are new. They are much more critical
of traffic calming. They got the city to do a study of the traffic volume
and speed on the street. The study indicated that the street did not meet
the minimum requirements for either volume of cars (we have 350 per day,
minimum is 400) or speed (the 85% speed--the rate that all but the real
speeders travel--is 28.5 and the minimum is 30mph).
Those minimum requirements were established in Portland Oregon,
however. I suggested that what is OK in Portland may be too much in
Moscow. Now, the city is trying to understand what those standards will
be--but in the meantime, the public works committee has decided to create
a traffic calming demonstration project on Polk this summer (as soon as
the city finishes chopping up the street for the sewer project).
Our next step is to have a meeting between the city council
members of the public works committee, the city engineer and other staff,
and the residents of Polk street to choose the design.
Further installments to follow.....
BL
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