Title
Traffic Calming (B)
Explanation
As a response to neighborhood complaints about traffic speeds, the City of Gainesville has had a traffic calming program in operation for approximately 20 years. Since 1997, the program has included installation of speed humps and speed tables. These traffic control devices create concerns in three areas for Gainesville Fire Rescue (GFR): potential increases in emergency response times, potential weakening or damage to apparatus and equipment, and increased injury risk for responders. If the City of Gainesville continues to implement vertical devices that potentially impact emergency response travel speeds, the cumulative effect of those devices may contribute to the need to develop additional fire-rescue stations to facilitate the City of Gainesville's ability to meet national travel standards for fire and medical emergencies.
GFR conducted field tests over both speed humps and speed tables in a variety of neighborhoods. The tests confirmed that the cumulative effects of multiple devices, particularly speed humps, on roadway segments can potentially increase emergency response times based on a delay range of three (3) to twenty-three (23) seconds per device. With a national travel standard of four minutes as a benchmark, any devices that can slow responders by as much as 25% of that time should warrant exploration of alternatives. GFR acknowledges the need for neighborhoods to address their traffic speed concerns. GFR's goal is to partner with the Public Works Department to identify feasible alternatives that will meet neighborhood needs without significantly compromising emergency response times.
The traffic calming program is currently on hold pending a decision by the City Commission on whether to continue including speed humps and/or tables as alternatives in the program. City staff has explored alternative traffic calming tools based on a presentation by Dan Burden at the MTPO Transportation Symposium in January. Several of his recommended alternatives require more extensive roadwork to accommodate drainage, thus resulting in significantly higher construction costs than speed humps and tables.
Prior to 1999, the Public Works Department covered the cost of the traffic calming in its annual operating budget. In 1999, $50,000 was allocated from Lease In/Lease Out revenue and in 2003, $30,000 from the General Fund and an additional $25,000 from the General Fund in 2004. There is currently $33,000 available in the traffic calming account. Staff recommends that $13,000 be allocated for maintenance of existing traffic calming devices and the implementation of one of Mr. Burden's lower cost recommendations of converting all-way stop mini-circles to all-way yield controls and $20,000 reserved for new traffic calming. The funds could also be used to experiment with some less intrusive, and possibly equally effective, traffic-calming methods as suggested by Dan Burden.
Public Works currently has 81 outstanding requests for traffic calming on file. If the City Commission decides to continue a traffic-calming program, Public Works Department staff will bring back recommended modifications to the current traffic calming policy based on a review of both traffic speeds and volumes of the roadway. All the requests on file will be studied to develop a priority list for installation of traffic calming.
Fiscal Note
There is currently $33,000 available in the Public Works Department's traffic calming project account.
Recommendation
The City Commission: 1) hear a report from Gainesville Fire Rescue and Public Works Department staffs describing the traffic calming currently in use, and its potential impacts to emergency response times; 2) discuss whether the traffic calming program should be continued and funded; 3) allocate $13,000 for maintenance of existing traffic calming devices and signs to convert all-way stop mini-circles to all-way yields and $20,000 for new traffic calming activities; and 4) instruct staff to modify traffic calming policies to use a combination of traffic speed and volume when evaluating priorities for installation of new traffic calming devices.