"Emergency Streets" concept: staff proposes temporary post-crash interventions to slow traffic and raise awareness

City staff introduced the Emergency Streets concept: a tactical public-safety program that would deploy temporary traffic-calming and awareness treatments at the site of a traffic fatality within 48 hours and maintain them for approximately two weeks to slow speeds and generate public attention and follow-on improvements.

"We are still in the midst of a traffic safety crisis," John Snyder said, reporting that the city had recorded 21 traffic fatalities and 101 serious injuries this year and saying "we need to increase safety in our road projects, in our transportation policies." Snyder described potential treatments that could be used in a pilot: cones and signage, painted treatments, temporary bollards, movable speed humps, rumble strips and speed-feedback signs, with tailored options by street type.

Commissioners and liaisons welcomed the concept but raised operational concerns: which streets would be appropriate for a pilot; how to avoid creating new pedestrian hazards by placing cones or signage in sidewalks; color choices and compliance with the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices; snow-removal and maintenance compatibility; possible traffic rerouting into neighborhoods; and the need for before-and-after data collection to measure speed and diversion effects.

Samantha Hennessy of the Spokane Regional Health District supported the public-health framing but urged careful planning to avoid increasing pedestrian exposure around memorialization and requested integrated data collection to demonstrate effects and community impacts. Staff said the concept is at a conceptual stage, that University of Colorado students will help develop designs as part of a class, and that city staff will explore pilot parameters, traffic-control requirements and data collection before bringing a formal proposal back to the commission.