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Safety committee weighs Meadowbrook traffic calming; engineer cautions against unwarranted multi-way stops
Summary
Councilmembers asked for a traffic study and debated a four-way stop at Fenwick as a near-term measure; the city’s traffic advisor cautioned that stop signs should not be used for speed control and described state warrants for multi-way stops, while staff agreed to estimate study costs.
Councilmembers and staff reviewed resident complaints about vehicle speeds and pedestrian safety on Meadowbrook and discussed possible traffic calming measures, including a four-way stop at Fenwick, curb extensions, radar speed signage and other treatments.
Councilman King said a four-way stop at Fenwick would break up a long uninterrupted stretch of Meadowbrook and improve pedestrian crossing access to Walter Stinson Park. Several councilmembers and staff supported starting with lower‑cost interventions while pursuing a formal traffic study.
“...I really do think that a relatively cheap intervention we could do would be to put in the stops or 4 way stop at Fenwick. That is a primary route that people are using to get to Walter Stinson Park and it does break up a large uninterrupted stretch of Meadowbrook,” King said.
City traffic advisor Mr. Pennington cautioned that stop signs should not be used solely for speed control and noted state/manual warrants for multi-way stops: volume thresholds (for example, the manual’s hour-based counts) and crash histories can justify multi-way stop installations; otherwise, unwarranted stop signs can create liability concerns. Pennington recommended traffic calming alternatives such as curb bump-outs, raised crosswalks, radar feedback signs and reviewing intersection radii to reduce cornering speeds.
“Stop signs should not be used for speed control. You do open up the city to liability where unwarranted stop signs go in, if an accident were to occur,” Mr. Pennington told the committee while distributing guidance from the Ohio manual on uniform traffic control.
Councilmembers asked staff to obtain cost estimates for a traffic study and to test lower-cost measures the department can deploy (such as radar feedback signs in stealth mode) while the study is scheduled and funded. Staff said they would provide cost and timing estimates and return the item to the committee for a data-driven recommendation.
