BIKE: Travis Hts. Neighborhood Traffic Calming Plan(Status Update)

[Jeremy Elliott]

[quasi-traffic-circles on Mary, Annie, et. al.]

> Why should they scare you?

These intersections where in place when I joined the
neighborhood. It seems to me that people just fly on
through them as fast as they can. It's obvious which
streets have the higher level of traffic, and the
drivers on those streets usually fly on by.

> Pretty hard to go faster
> than 30 MPH through one of those things.

But what if you're trying to save a life, a home, or
remove waste or recycling material from a home. Isn’t
the min. turning radii of fire trucks, ambulances, and
waste removal vehicles well outside the path allowed
in these intersections? I see waste trucks having to
cut the corner, going counter-clockwise for 90˚,
in order to make a left turn. I'm sure it's worse for
fire trucks. I've read where "A policy analysis was
conducted specifically for the conflict that had
arisen in Austin, Texas. Based on quantitative
processes, this analysis showed that Austin would lose
an additional 37 lives per year with patients of
sudden cardiac arrest if the Fire and EMS Departments
experienced a 30 second delay in response times due to
traffic calming." More about Traffic Calming vs.
Emergency Response is here:
http://members.aol.com/ihbook/tfc_calm.pdf
and here:
http://www.users.qwest.net/~erinard/problems_associated_with_traffic.htm

Were these intersections installed to save pedestrian
lives? Or increase property values by limiting
traffic?

Seems to me that they, at best, limit thru traffic on
previously established east-west collector routes that
were in place at the time neighborhood activists
bought their homes at the expense of significantly
reduced emergency response times, increased emissions,
brake wear, and I'll add this--significant danger to
vehicle operators and liability to the city.

The last item is valid because the intersections are
illegal.

> no stop signs and just the need to yield instead.

Who do you yield to here? The sign says "YIELD | ALL
WAY" Someone explain that to me. If I'm yielding to
you, and you're yielding to me... who has the right of
way? By definition, we should just sit there yielding
to each other. I tried to look up an explanation of
the sign in the city, state, and national MUTCD only
to discover that the sign does not exist. Signing an
intersection with an unapproved sign opens the city
and sealing engineer up to a host of liability when
there's an accident. 

I love round-a-bouts. They work very well. But these
are not round-a-bouts. There's no "Yield to traffic in
circle" sign. They are way too small to allow for a.)
turning radii of design vehicles, b.) a weaving length
for vehicles entering the circle to interact with
vehicles already in the circle, or hell, even c.)
recognition of a vehicle actually being in the circle.

Furthermore, the landscaping in the island, though
pretty, blocks the line of sight. I can't tell if a
vehicle is signaling a turn (indicating it will
continue within the circle) or not. I can not make
eye-contact with vehicle operators so that I know they
see me on my little bicycle vehicle.

Still furthermore, most of these quasi-circle
intersections have at least 2 and sometimes all 4
approaches with sight triangle distances that violate
common urban design specifications, including those
mandated by AASHTO's Roadside Design Guide for 30mph
urban streets. In other words, at 30mph, when I’m at a
distance away from the intersection such that I can
identify another approaching vehicle, apply the brake,
and decelerate to avoid a collision—there’s a fence or
a tree or a house blocking my line of sight. By the
time I see an obstacle, it's too late to do anything
about. Combine that with the double-high 14” vertical
curb and I think it’s safe to say that we’ve got
several dangerous intersections. Whoever signed and
sealed the plans for these intersections has opened
himself and the City up for litigation when there’s an
accident.

(Over-exaggerating) It slows traffic the same way a
machine-gun nest does… out of shear fear.

A 4-way yield sign…  jeese.

Please, in the future, I hope City transportation
officials don’t trade reduced safety and increased
emissions in order to acquire reduced volume and
speed. Every neighborhood has collector streets. Don’t
buy a house on one and then try to turn it into
something else. The rest of us might have bought under
the pretenses that we could safely navigate a 4-way
intersection and have a fire truck arrive before
little Joey goes up in flames.

Or just use speed-cushions. I can bunny-hop those!


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I wonder how many fine, inspiring ideas in every walk of
life are strangled in the womb of the imagination
because there's no way past the gates of commerce?

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