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Consultants present downtown traffic study; council asked for targeted policy thresholds
Summary
Johnson Engineering told the City Council that validated March 2025 counts and a 10-year projection show corridors such as US 41 and Goodlette‑Frank face growing congestion; consultants proposed trip‑generation thresholds, directional peak analysis, and turn‑lane warrant criteria for developer traffic impact studies.
Johnson Engineering updated the City Council on a downtown traffic study on Dec. 8, saying March 2025 peak‑season counts validated earlier data and underpin 10‑year projections to 2035. Joshua Hildebrand, a transportation engineer with Johnson Engineering, said the firm applied roughly 1.5% baseline growth for city streets and higher (about 2%) for major corridors, and used that to model roadway and intersection level‑of‑service outcomes.
The presentation laid out five policy recommendations for improving the city's traffic impact study (TIS) standards: trigger studies by trip generation scale (small/minor/major), define a clear area‑of‑study rule, analyze peak directional traffic rather than bidirectional volumes, require phase‑buildout analysis for phased developments, and adopt turn‑lane warrant criteria for city roadways. "We did collect additional data starting in March 2025," Hildebrand said, noting the study validated historic crash data and identified US 41 and Goodlette as higher‑crash corridors.
Council members pressed staff and the consultant on whether nearby large developments—particularly projects in Collier County—were included; staff said county projects would be incorporated when formal applications were available. Members also asked about the sampling variability and whether pedestrian push‑button activations affected signal delay calculations. Hildebrand and staff said pedestrian counts and timing can be incorporated in the Syncro Studio modeling when available and that March counts are a sample consistent in timing year‑to‑year.
Vice Mayor Hutchison framed the discussion in policy terms, urging council to consider concurrency and level‑of‑service standards as tools to limit development that would exceed city capacity. Staff said some local segments already carry failing service levels and noted that remediation options include repairs, capital improvements, and changes to operations and maintenance.
The consultant asked for council feedback to refine the draft language before sending recommendations to the Planning Advisory Board and returning to council for final action, with an anticipated final report in winter 2026.
