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Traffic engineer presents draft enhanced‑visibility stop‑sign policy; council discusses thresholds and costs
Summary
At a workshop the council reviewed a draft policy to guide enhanced stop-sign/pavement treatments. The policy relies on MUTCD warrants, five‑year crash and violation reviews and a case-by-case engineering evaluation; staff estimated $5,000–$7,000 per intersection for a formal evaluation.
Traffic engineer Janelle Clayton presented a draft policy to guide when the city will consider enhanced stop signs or pavement markings—options that range from higher‑visibility signs to LED perimeter signs or rapid‑flashing beacons. Clayton said the guidance is grounded in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) and recommended a structured review that considers five‑year crash records, police violation data, sight distance, sign retroreflectivity, approach speeds and driver yielding behavior. "This is our national standard document we follow," Clayton said of the MUTCD, and she described how warrants direct engineering judgment in whether to convert two‑way to four‑way stops.
Clayton estimated an external technical review and data collection would cost "between 5 to $7,000 for each case that we're looking at," and council members discussed whether the city should require a petition threshold or an initial, lower‑cost screening step (visual inspection, ticketing/crash data review) before commissioning a full $5k–$7k study. Council also suggested proactively considering parks and school zones for higher visibility treatments and leveraging the Complete Streets and forthcoming bike/pedestrian plan updates to identify priority locations. Staff will refine the proposed policy to include an intermediate screening step and return with recommended petition or threshold language.
