18 - Downtown Traffic Committee presentation

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Rob Vine, Deputy City Manager - Todd Mittge, City Engineer Andrew Mack, Director of Planning and Community Development Cheri Bedford, Main Street Coordinator Randy Tuttle, Assistant Chief of Police - Edwayne Samis, Traffic Superintendent - Chris Donnan, Third Party Contracted City Engineer This memo is intended to provide the City Council with a summary of the work this committee did to make a positive impact on traffic speeds downtown. STATUS OF ISSUE: Our first step was to speak with TxDOT and identify measures we could reasonably pursue both financially and operationally in a short period of time that fit their regulations; therefore some projects (ex: two way traffic) were outside our intended scope. Throughout 2023, the City Council received regular updates from the City Manager as to the work the committee was doing. The following is a summary of our accomplishments: - Using an Electronic Speed Sign and moving it from point to point for 30-45 day trial periods, tested the traffic count and speed of all four entrances to the Plaza and all four exits from the Plaza. This is the primary reason why it took our committee a year to complete our work as there were eight different testing sites. - Experimented with vertical delineators in "no -parking" hash (gore) areas to discourage vehicles from parking, obstructing visibility for turning traffic. Eventually switched many of these to the "turtle shells" as a more aesthetic change following downtown feedback. - Restriped most all of the parallel parking stalls in and around the Plaza, including "boxing - in" the parking stalls which helped motorists see where to park and where to drive. - Restriped the gore areas (no parking zones) for better visibility. This is where the turtle shells were placed. - Worked with TxDOT to repaint certain crosswalks that had become faded and/or were misaligned with the ADA ramps. - Added static "Speed Limit" signs along stretches of roadway that were missing them. - Tested "Back -In" Angle Parking as a potential future change. Using the electronic speed signs, we have produced the attached map that illustrates data collected on vehicle count, average speed, the number of vehicles that were driving 1 mph or more above the speed limits, the number of vehicles that were driving 5 mph or more above the speed limit (which is a subset of the 1+ mph group), as well as the "Sign Effectiveness Rating" (SER). A few takeaway points: