"I have had 3 traffic "studies" done on Chelsea St. over the past 5 1/2 years that I've been here. Each study has produced results that from which any intelligent person would conclude that there was a serious traffic issue on Chelsea St. But as the bureacrats see it, there isn't.I agree with the above. Maybe we should asked for a new study and rig the results by getting a whole bunch of people to go 11 MPH just over the measuring cables.
I was told after the last one (summer 2005) that only 50 % of the traffic on
Chelsea went over 35 mph (the limit is 25mph) and that there were over 1500
vehicles per day travelling along Chelsea St. And that there were even vehicles travelling up to 70 mph. BUT...They said that wasn't enough to qualify Chelsea street for any traffic calming device. They say that the "rule" is that at least 85% of the traffic must be going at least 10 mph over the designated speed limit. I was even told once that they could not put up a stop sign at 10th street and Chelsea because it did fall into FEDERAL GUIDELINES!! Yes, the Federal Gov't tells the city where they can put a stop sign!!
Unfortunately, it will take the death of a child before something is done. I have observed that the worst offenders are the 50 or so school buses that cut through using Chelsea St. everyday.
I want to focus a little on the fact that speeding school buses are a problem. ABC7 did a news story on this in Lee County. Here is a complaint form. The main number for the school board transportation department is 982-5500.
Here is a website on traffic calming.
This sounds remarkably similar to East Idlewild Avenue. We get cut-through traffic trying to avoid the hillsborough/I-275/Nebraska intersection.
ReplyDeleteThe first study done after I moved in showed over 1600 cars a day at an average over 35mph with some up in the 70s. The city has repeatedly said this isn't a problem and pointed to the 85-percentile rule as evidence.
Jeff Harmon explains the falacy of this rule best. I'll paraphrase here.
If you have 50 cars going down a street at 50mph in a 25mph zone, the 85% rule says this is a traffic hazzard and needs attention. If you add 284 cars going 30mph to the 50 speeders it is no longer a hazzard. That is to say, the threat created by those 50 cars no longer exists according to the 85% rule.
(bull****!)
At the time the study I have a copy of was done, the speed limit on our residential street was 30mph. it has been lowered to 25 since. The study was conducted over 4 days, Friday thru Monday, no holiday, and was situated in front of my house. The numbers below do not include the 70mph+ cars because I question whether that is a real reading or not.
Friday:: 228 cars >= 40mph. 16 cars >= 50mph. 1296 total.
Saturday:: 245 cars >= 40mph. 16 cars >= 50mph. 2 cars = 60mph!. 1611 total.
Sunday:: 158 cars >= 40mph. 7 cars >= 50mph. 1380 total.
Monday:: 211 cars >= 40mph. 13 cars >=50mph. 1326 total.
Note that publix is at the bottom of the hill on Idlewild and Nebraska. Idlewild has no sidewalks and the section from 12th to Lake Roberta Circle is wider than a normal residential street.
One of the things neighbors on my street do to reduce traffic is to park our vehicles in the streets. My big 'ol red pickup truck does a great job of obstructing the view up or down the hill and makes people more cautious. Having to weave a bit as they drive, people go slower. It's ugly to have a street crowded with vehicles. Our mailman even tried to start a letter-writing campaign to get my truck removed. (He's gone. Truck isn't.) One neighbor called my truck into code enforcement to have it removed to no avail. The complaints stopped after a while as the effect on traffic became more obvious. Now I alternate between the driveway and the front. That seems to be enough to keep people on the sane side of things.
The city simply isn't going to do anything about traffic issues on our streets until someone gets seriously hurt or dies. On paper, our streets are "safe" to mix pedestrians and autos on. We all know that's silly, but the city employees don't walk our street like we do.
Well, Broad St. has the same problem. Last fall when a policeman was stopped on Broad talking to one of the neighbors someone drove down the street and even scared the cop! He asked if this was normal and we all said "Yes". We are a "cut-through" from Florida through Nebraska. It is insane. When I sit on my porch while the cars leave in the AM to go to work, I see the zillion mph cars zoom by and the police know it is hazardouds and scary. There have been two studies on our street. No help. Fortunately we have sidwalks. unfortunately we have the "throw-off" from the Alpine cruising up and down too. Some of Alpine's visitors should not be allowed out.
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