CC Min 1997-12-08 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

- II .1 responsive to its citizens. Manager Patterson said staff was working with the neighborhoods and preparing other policies for Council consideration. - Dan Smith, Traffic Calming Consultant from Smith Engineering and Management, described his report on speed hump use, which is "a broader a set of tools... for responding to traffic problems on local residential streets." He said CalTrans manuals are generally written for state highways, and they are not for streets that are purely for access to residential neighborhoods. Mr. Smith said speed humps are "a general rise and return in the elevation of the street, rising up to a maximum height of three inches over a distance of fourteen feet in the direction of travel from the beginning of the rise to where it returns back to the normal grade of the roadway. What do they do? They dramatically reduce the speed of the fastest drivers. And that is the most important thing. That's the thing that has been most irritating to residents, historically." Mr. Smith said the speeding problem on residential streets is the most difficult problem for engineers and police personnel to resolve. He said normal drivers will be able to maintain their normal driving habits, and speed humps do not usually change shifts in driving patterns, as they are not that inconvenient or uncomfortable. Mr. Smith said they do not pose problems for bicyclists, motorcyclists, or fire apparatus, nor do they cause the kinds of problems that the far more familiar speed humps found in parking lots cause. Mr. Smith described the Policy's standards and criteria under which speed humps could be authorized, and its provision for community support. - In response to Couneil Member Hartnett's questions, City Manager Everett said, "We are going to come back to you in January with the process of implementing any or all of the traffic calming devices including the speed hump. Right now, we are trying to get the policy on the books, and we will come back to you about the implementation strategy." City Manager Everett said staff needed more time to confer with the City Attorney to see how and what could legally be implemented. Viee Mayor Ruskin read a letter sent to the Council from Jeanne Roehm, which said "Speeders speed. It does not matter how many traffic tickets they get or the number of fenders they smash, the challenge is to be ahead of the pack... Speed bumps only present a challenge." She urged the Council not to approve speed humps. Mr. Smith said speed humps are very different from speed humps. He said the faster you go the less the passengers feel the effects of speed humps, but with speed humps, the faster you go the more passengers do feel their effects, which can be quite uncomfortable. Mr. Smith showed overheads illustrating the effectiveness of using speed humps to lower speeds on residential streets. In response to Council Member Leipzig's questions regarding the problems the City of Fresno has had with speed humps, Mr. Smith said, he was unaware ofthose problems, but - said shorter humps, less than the proposed fourteen feet, could have caused some problems REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTE BOOK NO. 56 DECEMBER 8.1997 MINUTES Page No. 101 PAGE 16