Title
Resolution Directing the City Administrator to Review Traffic Calming, Speed Limits, and Design Speed for Road Reconstructions
Memorandum
When the City Council received the recommendations of the Pedestrian Safety and Access Task Force, it also adopted a Vision Zero goal of "zero traffic fatalities by 2025.
One important tool to prevent pedestrian fatalities is to lower traffic speeds. For example, World Health Organization data show that the chance of death for a pedestrian hit by an automobile increases as vehicle speed increases, from 5% at 20 miles per hour to 85% at 40 miles per hour. Traffic calming, speed limits, and street design are three tools to lower traffic speeds. This resolution explores ways to improve those systems.
Modifying the qualification criteria
There are a variety of traffic dynamics that can lead residents to seek traffic calming
? Consistent speeding: There is a steady stream of vehicles traveling above posted speeds.
? Jackrabbits: While most traffic may travel within 5 mph of posted speeds, the street regularly experiences vehicles travelling significantly in excess of posted speeds, such as 40mph in a 25mph neighborhood
? Rush Hour Rushing: While a street may experience appropriate speeds 22 hours per day, it experiences a significant amount of speeding during rush hours.
One of the current qualifications for neighborhood traffic calming is "15 percent of the traffic must be traveling at least 5 mph over the legal speed limit." This criteria functions well for the problem described as consistent speeding, but is not well suited to the problems of "rush hour rushing" or "jackrabbits." For these problems it may be useful to expand the criteria in the following ways:
? Experiences 15 percent of the traffic travelling at least 5 mph over the legal speed limit for any one hour period (to address rush hour rushing)
? Experiences 5 percent of the traffic travelling at least 10 mph over the legal speed limit (to address jackrabbit...
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