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Council reviews draft traffic-calming policy; staff plans petition window and technical data collection
Summary
City transportation staff presented a draft traffic-calming policy that would require property-owner petitions, data collection and a ranking process; staff removed private-funding and special-assessment options after public comment and proposed a summer petition window with construction in subsequent months.
City transportation staff presented a draft traffic-calming policy April 15 that, if adopted, would formalize how neighborhoods request speed and cut-through mitigations and how staff prioritize and implement physical treatments.
Transportation Director Wendy Brindle and Traffic Engineer Victoria Trexler summarized the policy’s goals and tools. Trexler said the policy follows Institute of Transportation Engineers definitions of traffic calming and organizes approaches into passive measures (education, enforcement, driver-feedback signs), horizontal measures (chicanes, medians, neighborhood traffic circles) and vertical measures (speed humps, speed cushions, raised crosswalks).
Trucks and first responders raised concerns about some vertical measures’ impact on response times. Fire and police chiefs told council vertical devices can slow emergency response and said the department prefers measures that minimize effects on emergency vehicles; staff noted speed cushions can be tailored for fire-truck wheel paths but still affect ambulance response.
Trexler described a data-driven application process: a petition submitted by residents (paper or digital) accompanied by signatures from 75% of affected property owners; staff then would collect speed, volume and crash data and rank validated requests. After public comment, staff removed private-funding and special-assessment funding options from the draft and said the city will use general-fund dollars for implementation. The planned timetable would accept petitions in June–July, conduct data collection August–January to capture school-period traffic, and return ranked recommendations to council in February, with potential construction March–June.
Staff emphasized the policy would include an eligibility map showing streets that are ineligible for traffic calming (for example, certain collectors) and said neighborhoods found ineligible at the technical stage could not reapply for two years.
Council did not vote on the policy on April 15; staff said they will refine the draft and return with additional materials, including the eligibility map and the budget for initial data-collection tools.
