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Roeland Park council hears mixed results from Buena Vista traffic-calming pilot; asks staff for cost estimates for permanent measures
Summary
Traffic engineer Janelle Clayton told the council the temporary traffic-calming devices on Buena Vista reduced speeds at most measurement sites but produced variable results and diverted some traffic; council asked staff to return with cost estimates for a proposed mix of permanent measures, including two speed humps, two speed tables and a roundabout at 53rd.
Roeland Park's traffic engineer, Janelle Clayton, presented a post-installation report on four temporary traffic-calming devices placed along Buena Vista, saying the best-measured location showed roughly a 25% reduction in average speed and a 23'25% drop in 85th-percentile speeds.
"At the location with the strongest data we saw about a 31% decrease in northbound daily volume and a 23% to 25% reduction in speeds," Clayton said, summarizing counts and speed-trailer comparisons and noting limitations in some counters.
Resident Michelle Doherty, who lives on Buena Vista, told the council the measures have made a difference and urged the council to pursue permanent installations. "It is making a difference," she said, recalling a child struck near her home and asking the council to keep neighbors informed about the neighborhood vote to make devices permanent.
Clayton said the speed-hump-type devices outperformed speed tables in slowing traffic but that the temporary rubber devices produced mixed resident responses in the city survey (22 respondents: 54% found humps effective; 37% preferred neither). She also noted some drivers diverted to alternate routes, based on daily-volume drops at one sensor.
Council members pressed staff on several practical points: whether permanent features would be noisier than the temporary devices; how quickly devices should be installed; and how the installations would affect emergency vehicles. Clayton said concrete or asphalt permanent installations might be quieter than the temporary rubber units and that the pilot was designed with emergency-vehicle cushion cutouts in mind.
Council consensus was to pursue a plan that staff can show neighbors and to return with updated cost estimates. "What I'm hearing is support for permanent solutions," Mayor Michael Popa said, asking staff to bring numbers for a package that included two speed humps, two speed tables and a traffic circle at West 53rd so the council can give formal direction and start the neighborhood-approval process.
Next steps: staff will develop cost estimates and a scope (including pedestrian-crossing considerations) and return to the council; any permanent installation will require outreach and the neighborhood approval thresholds noted by staff.
