TO: Mayor Hornaday / Homer City Council
FROM: Walt Wrede
DATE: May 16, 2006
SUBJECT: Traffic Calming / Request for Speed Bumps
The City recently received a petition from residents and business owners on Bunnell St. requesting that the City assist them with installing speed humps. A copy of the petition is attached for your information. As you know, Old Town is developing rapidly and we are seeing increasing traffic there, both vehicular and pedestrian. The roads are narrow and there are no sidewalks. Old Town is experiencing problems with high speeds and reckless driving during the summer months and safety for pedestrians is a growing concern. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that off street parking is limited there. The police have stepped up patrols but that has had a limited effect. The area of greatest concern is Bunnell Street from Main to Beluga.
Since we received the petition, the City has been reviewing the situation in Old Town. The Police Department has stepped up patrols, reviewed complaint logs, and increased surveillance to get a better understanding of the situation. The Public Works Department has been reviewing traffic calming manuals, looking at different types of speed humps, and making observations with respect to traffic counts. Both departments have agreed that there are elevated safety concerns there at certain times of the day during the summer.
The Public Works Department has been reviewing traffic calming policy manuals from other municipalities. The one from Anchorage specifically addresses criteria, policies and procedures for installing speed humps. Anchorage gets many requests for the installation of these devices. Some requests have merit and some don’t. Some are a higher priority than others. So, there is a very specific, consistent, and orderly process that the municipality goes through to review these requests. It includes petitions from local residents, the gathering of speed and volume data, analysis by traffic engineers and police, neighborhood meetings, design and installation, approval of a maintenance budget, and follow-up research to determine if the traffic calming effort was effective.
Under the Anchorage Traffic Calming Policy Manual, Bunnell St. would likely not qualify for the installation of speed humps. Speed Humps are generally reserved for through streets that traverse residential neighborhoods. Old Town is largely a commercial district and Bunnell is essentially a dead end street. Traffic volumes there are unknown at this time but the higher levels are at specific times during the summer. However, this is not Anchorage and Old Town clearly has its own unique issues and characteristics. Traffic calming is an issue that is becoming increasingly important and much discussed in Homer. It is probably time for Homer to develop its own set of policies and procedures. We anticipate that if this request is granted, the City will immediately receive many additional requests for speed humps (or other types of traffic calming measures).
The Police Department has stated that it would support the installation of speed humps in Old Town. Public Works has no objections, but it did express a number of concerns that need to be addressed. For example, as indicated above, the City has no established policies and procedures. This would set a precedent and we expect (based upon experience) that many other parts of town will make a similar request. We need criteria to determine who gets speed humps and who does not. There are also long term budget and labor allocation issues that should be considered if the City starts installing and maintaining speed humps.
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