Residents press Keizer committee on neighborhood speeding; officer presents weeklong traffic counts

At a June 18 meeting of the Keizer Multimodal Safety Committee, multiple residents urged the committee to act on persistent speeding and cut-through traffic on neighborhood streets, while a police traffic officer presented weeklong automated data the department said should guide enforcement and traffic-calming decisions.

Resident Scott Forrest, who identified himself as living on Harmony, told the committee he recorded what he said was “over 11,000 vehicles on our street in just one week's time” and asked for cameras, more enforcement or speed humps. “I don't wanna get killed,” Forrest said during public comment, adding that speeding vehicles have killed neighborhood pets and come close to injuring people.

The committee also heard from Walter Shaka, who lives on Mandarin Street NE and described frequent stop-sign running near Whitaker school. “It's a sport to run the stop signs,” Shaka said, recounting multiple near misses and urging that crossings near schools be prioritized.

Officer Powell explained the department's traffic-survey method and shared recent results. The studies are done with a pole-mounted, unattended device that records every vehicle's speed and time continuously for seven full days, the officer said. He reported average speeds of about 26 mph on Shoreline, 28 mph on Virta and nearly 29 mph on Harmony, and noted Harmony produced the highest raw count of vehicles exceeding 37 mph among the streets measured. “It's not perception,” Officer Powell said of the counts. “It's true data.”

Committee members and staff said the committee's priority is to use data to identify 'hot spots' rather than relying only on anecdotal reports. Members discussed the neighborhood traffic management process — historically driven by resident petitions — and asked staff for a clearer, trackable list of locations and an approach to prioritize interventions. Director Guevara (staff) said the city can produce ballpark cost figures for different measures, and that some safety devices, like rapid rectangular flashing beacons, can be costly.

The committee encouraged residents to organize neighbors and submit petitions through the neighborhood traffic management program and invited the public to a joint council work session where the committee plans to present prioritized issues and data. Officer Powell said the department will continue targeted studies and recommended that enforcement hours be deployed where the data show the greatest frequency of high-speed incidents.

Next steps include staff compiling prioritized locations and cost estimates, Officer Powell presenting his compiled data to council at an upcoming meeting, and the committee following up on resident-submitted petitions and the neighborhood traffic management plan.