Agenda - Public Works Committee - 06/20/2006

Home

CASE DISCUSSION OF TRAFFIC CONCERNS IN THE ELMCREST PARK AREA By: Steven Jankowski, City Engineer Background: Within the past several months the City has received complaints relating to outside traffic using neighborhood streets to access Elmcrest Park where increased park activity has generated additional traffic. Notification that this topic was to be discussed at this meeting was mailed to individual property owners. A copy of a letter notifying these residents is attached to this case. Although the main vehicular access point to Elmcrest Park is from Quicksilver onto 167th Avenue, the park has a public access to the neighborhood to the west at 163rd Lane. The design of the parking lot allows park traffic to enter and leave through either of these access points. Increased use of the park has caused the neighborhood to note an increase in the neighborhood traffic. To better define the traffic counts were taken on four separate dates between June 6 and June 12, 2005. The results are illustrated on the attached figure entitled Elmcrest Park Area Traffic Counts. Excluding Friday when there are no organized league activities in the park, these figure shows that the park generated an average of 785 trips daily and that roughly 73% of the trips are using the Quicksilver access and 27% the 165tnLane access. The number of trips generated by the park through the neighborhood ranged fi.om 54 trips on Friday to 248 trips on Monday with an average of 138 trips using the 164Lane access. This traffic appears to use multiple routes for exiting the neighborhood. The traffic counts on the streets surveyed are within the range expected on residential streets. One possible mitigation measure might be the posting of a "No Exit" sign at the west entrance of the park prohibiting westbound traffic onto 163rd Lane. This should realize a 50% reduction in the traffic through the neighborhood. In fact, it may produce an additional reduction as park users will become acquainted with the Quicksilver access. However, there may also be negative consequences associated with this action. Residents fi.om the west neighborhood would be forced to drive several miles to return home when their residence may be only a short distance away. The enforcement of the restriction may also be difficult and will prompt resident calls to the police department for enforcement action. This would also increase traffic pressure on the 167th Avenue access which could be particularly problematic at the end of league games when incoming and exiting traffic becomes concentrated. Pursuing additional access points for the park may be a preferable alternative. The posting of a stop sign at the west exit for the park at Uranium Street may also be considered. This would be consistent with the posting of like stop signs at other community park exits onto the feeding City streets. This would provide some measure of protection for pedestrians in the vicinity of this intersection, particularly at the end of league games.