Of primary interest to the folks in my neighborhood only, though I will note that as Mayor Turner has made it easier for neighborhoods to request traffic-calming measures like speed cushions, this could be in your future as well. Tonight at 7 PM there will be a public meeting in the cafeteria at Hogg Middle School to discuss the very-hotly-debated neighborhood traffic management plan (NTMP) for the Woodland Heights. A copy of the letter sent to residents about the meeting is here. A map of the affected area is embedded in this post and viewable in larger form here; a larger version, from the back of that letter than I scanned and uploaded, is here. An FAQ for residents who haven’t been following this as closely as some is here.
As I understand it, there are three main issues: People speeding on Pecore, people not slowing down at the school crossings at Bayland and Helen and at Bayland at Morrison, and cut-through traffic on Watson and Beauchamp, both of which provide alternate routes to the freeway exchanges at I-10 and I-45. There’s a lot of concern that the forthcoming changes to I-45 in the area will create incentives for more cut-through traffic, and this is designed to remove those incentives. You may or may not care for the solutions being proffered, but this discussion has been going on for a long time and there have been plenty of opportunities to have your voice heard. None of what is being proposed should come as a surprise. If you have anything further to add, tonight at 7 PM at Hogg Middle School is your chance to add it.
Hey off the Kuff,
I had not realized you were in the hood. Who knows you may not even consider me in the hood or at least some might not. I am on the other side of the freeway. I am one of the folks that uses those cut through routes and Pecore. Pecore is 11th right. I do not mind traffic management that is not poorly designed and tears up cars. I also think traffic management signage needs to be obvious and any bumps need to be visible day and night from a comfortable distance by people respecting speed limits, neighborhoods and stop signs. Traffic circles that include gardens and a place to sit or a fountain maybe a gazebo are my favorite. I think hoods that ban cars as we now know them are in our future. Walling neighborhoods but having a designated complete street for moving traffic for commerce and emergencies as well as not restricting traffic flow for the rest of the city is important.
Traffic Circle experiment: i totally support.
I would also support expansion on this idea: 8th 1/2 at Beverly used to be a yield sign. It was changed for no apparent reason to a stop. A circle would be a nice median.
Speed bumps on Pecore are a horrible idea! Bayland and Taylor are also ill-advised.
The city has shown it can’t maintain the visibility of speed bumps and should not add any until it can manage that.
Anything that has city busses or is a corridor for emergency vehicles should not have speed bumps.
If people are speeding on your streets, call the constable.
Randall, note the traffic circles are small and will never be anything more than landscaping. There is a roundabout in the long-term plan for 20th, Main, Cavalcade, Studewood. It can’t happen fast enough, but I realize money is tight.
@Bill Shirley,
I agree about the speed bumps. Imagine an ambulance or fire crew having to apologize to a next of kin, or owner of a destroyed house…..”we could have saved your house or your loved one’s life, but we couldn’t get to you in time because of the speed bumps.”