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Traffic consultants tell Dobbs Ferry board Ashford Avenue is at capacity; targeted signal and lane tweaks favored over costly corridor upgrades
Summary
A Nelson Pope study found Ashford Avenue operates at or beyond capacity during peak hours; consultants recommended testing removal of a leading left‑turn phase at Washington Avenue, correcting a pedestrian 'ped‑recall' at Beacon Hill, and modest lane reconfigurations while delegating prioritization to the traffic committee.
The board heard a briefing on the Ashford Avenue corridor study, which was commissioned after a temporary signal failure at Washington and Ashford prompted questions about long‑term traffic operations.
Matt (speaker 11) summarized the study's genesis and said the corridor is essentially at capacity during peak periods: "we have a roadway that is, at capacity," he said, noting that marginal engineering improvements will yield small travel‑time gains unless traffic volumes decline.
Nelson Pope traffic consultants (presented by speaker 12) identified a leading left‑turn interval at Washington Avenue that consistently comes up even when few vehicles are turning, "stealing" green time from the primary through movement. The consultant recommended either removing that leading left or testing a temporary disabling to observe results. "If we were to steal those few seconds from this left turn and just give that additional time to the westbound ... you would improve the flow," the presenter said.
The consultant also flagged several lower‑cost safety and timing fixes: installing stop control at the uncontrolled Yonge Street side street (after a five‑year crash history), repairing or reprogramming a pedestrian 'ped recall' phase at Beacon Hill that is adding 7–15 seconds to cycles, and targeted lane reconfiguration at the Ogden/Leforge offset intersection to process turning volumes more efficiently. The team cautioned that corridor‑wide adaptive signal upgrades would be expensive and offer limited benefit while demand remains high.
Board members asked whether short tests (disabling the left‑turn phase or tweaking side‑street timings) could be run before committing funding; consultants said isolated tests and focused timing changes are feasible but that corridor‑wide adjustments require coordinated, corridor‑wide implementation to avoid unintended impacts at adjacent signals.
The board asked the traffic committee to review the consultant recommendations, prioritize practical first steps for implementation, and return with a short list of projects and cost estimates. Consultants emphasized that small, low‑cost tests of timing and a few localized geometry changes are the most likely near‑term wins.
Next steps: traffic committee to prioritize consultant recommendations, test limited signal timing changes as a pilot, and prepare cost estimates for the board to consider for budgeting.
