Public Works Unveils Data-Driven Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program; West Slope Resident Urges Action

A West Slope resident and Public Works staff were the focus of discussion Oct. 22 as the Infrastructure Planning and Sustainability Committee received an informational briefing on the city's updated neighborhood traffic calming program.

Stuart Nussman, a Tacoma resident, told the committee he and neighbors in the Naramore/West Slope area are seeing a marked increase in cut-through traffic and high speeds. "I'm intimately familiar with everyday watching the traffic," Nussman said, citing the uncontrolled intersection at South Carl Johan Drive and Sunray Drive and urging the city to "do what they can as soon as they can to ... reduce the speed and also alert people to the need to be much more aware of the intersection." Nussman identified himself as living at 1536 South Fernside Drive.

Public Works described a multi-part retooling of the traffic calming program that staff said is intended to be more data driven and to broaden delivery options. Bridal Kidd, assistant division manager of transportation, said the presentation was informational only and introduced the transportation division's lead engineer, Chi Chen, who explained the program's structure. The program focuses on residential (nonarterial) streets: the city has about 530 miles of nonarterial residential streets and roughly 2,700 residential intersections, staff said.

Key elements of the new approach: - Block scoring: staff assign every residential street a score (maximum 100 points) based on four weighted categories: collision history, equity, community features and infrastructure condition. The system ranks the entire residential network to find high-priority segments. - Two tracks for delivery: Track 1 is community-request driven and would use program funds to deliver projects originating from resident requests; Track 2 is program-initiative driven, where staff may proactively pursue high-scoring locations or partner with other city capital projects to reduce costs and speed delivery. - Toolbox of measures: treatments include speed humps, traffic circles, curb bulb-outs, chicanes, half-diverters and day-lighting (removal of parking near intersections or crosswalks to improve visibility). Staff cautioned cost estimates on the slides are relative and exclude some analysis and contractor variability; many measures have ongoing maintenance costs.

Staff said the program has received 1,014 total requests since creating a specific traffic-calming category in 2022, 671 of which were for residential streets. The program will prioritize locations with crash history, poor infrastructure and evidence of underserved areas. "Each category is also assigned to a specific weight to further emphasize its importance," Chi Chen said, describing the scoring methodology.

Committee members asked practical questions about transparency, public access to the scoring list, timelines and funding. Staff said the internal geographic information database is not currently public but that it could be considered. Council members raised the program's limited implementation funding: staff described roughly $50,000 currently designated to the program for citywide use and noted the program is constrained by staffing. Kidd said Track 2 partner projects are often the most efficient use of limited funds because partner projects can absorb mobilization and contractor setup costs.

Staff also discussed private-funded options for residents seeking quicker installations. Public Works cautioned privately funded traffic calming still requires city engineering review and outreach: "This does not mean that somebody can come down to municipal building, dump a bunch of cash on the table, say, go build my speed hump at this location. It still has to go through our engineering vetting," a staff member told the committee.

Outreach and evaluation: staff said they plan neighborhood outreach (postcards, letters and meetings) prior to construction and will perform at least one post-construction evaluation at least one year after construction to assess effectiveness.

Next steps: officials said they will continue to develop the scoring system and Track 1 project lists, expand partnership opportunities with other capital projects and return with additional details. Residents with site-specific concerns were encouraged to use 311 and to contact transportation staff for further follow-up.