Pinole City’s Traffic and Pedestrian Safety (TAPS) Committee on Wednesday opened a planned rewrite of the city’s traffic-calming policy and confirmed funding in the Capital Improvement Program for neighborhood traffic-calming projects.

The committee’s discussion centered on updating a policy last approved in February 2008, changing technical screening thresholds (including average daily traffic and speed criteria), reconsidering the community petition process, and preparing a set of guidelines and a “toolbox” of treatments. Director El Gindi said the updated policy or a new document is scheduled for City Council consideration on Nov. 18.

The revision matters because the current policy, El Gindi said, rejects many neighborhood requests under its existing thresholds and criteria. Committee members and staff discussed lowering the average-daily-traffic threshold (now 1,500 vehicles per day) toward a figure closer to 1,000 vehicle per day for local and minor collectors, adjusting how speed data are used (emphasizing the 85th percentile speed), and adding safety and visibility criteria to support intersection treatments.

El Gindi explained the process the department follows when a neighborhood requests traffic calming: staff collect and analyze data, conduct field reviews, and, if requirements are met, distribute a petition to affected addresses. “We currently have a petition process,” El Gindi said. “Once we receive a request for traffic calming from a community member, we go out and analyze, the collect and analyze the data, do a field review. And if it meets the requirements, then we send out a petition to the affected community members.”

Under the current policy, a 60% petition approval is required to proceed; staff proposed possibly lowering that to a 50% plus one majority or otherwise easing how petitions are circulated (mailing petitions rather than relying solely on door-to-door signatures). Committee members noted that a high petition threshold and the difficulty of collecting signatures may suppress valid requests and discussed staff-assisted mailing and outreach as options.

The committee reviewed specific technical criteria that staff propose to update: (1) changing the average annual daily traffic threshold from 1,500 toward 1,000 for local/minor collectors; (2) relying on the 85th-percentile (often expressed in practice as the “80 fifth percentile” in staff remarks) from speed surveys rather than a manually computed percent exceeding the speed limit; and (3) allowing flexibility for roadways with more than one lane per direction where reconfiguration could enable calming measures. El Gindi said she would add “visibility and safety conditions” and collision patterns as qualifying factors for intersection treatments.

Committee members and staff discussed a range of calming devices that could be included in the updated guidelines: pavement markings and signs, painted “bulb-outs” with bollards, parabolic and flat-top speed humps, chokers, curb extensions, diagonal diverters, roundabouts or traffic circles, center medians, back-in angle parking, landscaping and street furniture, and multimodal facilities that may narrow vehicle lanes to create room for pedestrian or bicycle space. El Gindi stressed that some measures, such as half- or full-road closures and diagonal diverters, can shift traffic onto other residential streets and therefore must be applied carefully.

The City’s capital improvement program includes an initial set-aside for traffic calming: $200,000 in fiscal year 2025–26 and another $200,000 in fiscal year 2026–27, with $150,000 in subsequent years. El Gindi said that many projects will still require City Council approval before staff can execute contracts, and she suggested bringing the project plan and the associated contract to Council together to reduce delays.

On community engagement and transparency, staff said they are preparing tracking spreadsheets and CIP materials that TAPS members and the public can access so requests and project status remain visible. El Gindi said she would email committee members draft guidelines (track-changes or a new document) in October and return with the revised document and a toolbox for further discussion at a subsequent meeting.

Committee members expressed general support for writing a cleaner, faster new document rather than repeatedly revising the old one. Several members emphasized the need for robust community outreach and early consideration of equity and neighborhood spillover effects when selecting devices.

The committee provided direction to staff to draft the updated policy, to circulate it to TAPS members in track changes for review, and to prepare materials for City Council consideration on Nov. 18. No formal vote or ordinance was taken at the meeting.