TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING

Steps for A Successful Traffic Calming Project

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Step 4. Introductory Meeting & Traffic Committee Formation

At this step the City may hold an introductory meeting with the requesting neighborhood to present general Neighborhood Traffic Management Program information. The neighborhood is asked to form a traffic committee with representatives of the concerned streets to work with the City to identify traffic problems in their neighborhood and find solutions that are appropriate and acceptable. The volunteer Traffic Committee prioritizes the neighborhood's concerns and provides a list to the City. The neighborhood concerns are addressed in the order of priority on this list.

Step 5. Feasibility Study & Preliminary Design

With consideration given to the information gathered in the initial traffic investigation and the current budget balances, staff works with the Commissioners to establish a priority for each of the traffic calming requests on their district’s list. Once the order of priority is established a feasibility study is initiated, either in-house or by a consultant, to further identify the specific traffic problems, determine appropriate and feasible traffic calming strategies to address the problems, develop a preliminary traffic calming plan to show the locations of the proposed devices, determine the project's impact area, prepare maps, petition documents & property owner lists for the parcels within the project impact area, and prepare any necessary presentation boards and/or materials.

Step 6. Presentation of findings & Proposed Calming Plan

The traffic calming plan is presented to the traffic committee (or to the neighborhood). Adjustment to the plan can be considered at this step. Once the neighborhood and the City agree on the proposed plan the committee is presented with copies of the plan, the official petition and property owner address information. Also at this time the traffic calming concept plan is circulated internally within the City (i.e. Police, Fire, Sanitation, etc…) and externally to outside agencies / companies ( i.e. utilities, etc...) for review and comment.

Step 7. Petition of Support

Before the project can go forward the City must receive a petition of support signed by 65% of the property owners within the designated impact area. Each parcel / address is entitled to one property owner signature. The traffic committee is responsible for circulating the petition among the affected property owners (including non-resident property owners) and returning it to the Transportation Engineering Division within 90 days. If the petition is not returned or is returned without the required number of signatures the project ends at this point. If the petition is returned with the required number of signatures the petition is considered successful and moves forward to the next step.