03-14-2001 - Minutes TC _" - . t �v.
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CITY TRAFFIC COMMISSION
Minutes of a Regular Meeting: March 14, 2001 ,
1. OPENING
A. Flag Pledge
B. Roll Call:
. Present-Commissioners: J.Fortier, F.Sciarra, F.Petronella,W.Poutsma
Present—Staff: H.Bahadori, C.Giass, Sgt. J.Gomez-Whiteley, D.Allenbach,W.Winthers, P.Then
Absent=Commissioners: D.Yarger .
C. �►pproval of Minutes: .
March '14, 2001 —Approve as published by the Recording Secretary.
MOTION: F. Sciarra
SECOND: F. Petronella
AYES: Unanimous
fl. CONSENT CALENDAR
A. Request for the installation of 30 feet of red curb rnarkings on the south side
of Palrr�Ave. at Cleveland St. �
John Broughton
289 N. Cleveland St.
Orange CA 92866
Ora!presentation is based on the written s�aff report;please refer to your copy
There was no discussion of this request
- ACTION: � Approve the installation of 30 feet of red curb markings on the
south side of Palm Ave. east of Cleveland St.
MOTION: F. Petronella �
SECOND: F. Sciarra
AYES: Unanimous a �
����������������� End of Consent Calendar �����������������
Tape#CTC-21.03 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review.
Please contact the Recording Secretarp at(714)744-5536 in this regard,advance notice is appreciated.
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Minutes of a Regufar Meet►. �—City Traffic Commission—March 14,2001 , pg,2
III.CONSIDERATlON iTEMS
1. Request for the installation of a STOP control device at the intersection of
Riverview Ave. and Gayle St.
Michaei Chew
1528 E. SanAlto Ave.
Orange CA 92865
Oral presentation is based on the written staff report; p/ease refer to your copy.
Chairman Fortier opened the public hearing for the following discussion:
Michael Chew, 1528 E. SanAlto Ave. —There is a lot of traffic here this is one of
the primary entrances to this development, its an uncontrolled intersection. I am
requesting the placement of a STOP sign on Riverview Ave. just to prevent the
right angle collisions we were talking about. There is a dip and people tend to
slow down but still the right-of-way is not often yielded and there is potential for
an accident.
Albert Swinq, 4215 N. Gavle St. — Concerned about possibility of an accident
occurring. The north and southbound traffic slows down because of the
proximi#y to Riverview and also the dip, this is not the case for the east and
westbound traffic and many of these cars do not slow down when they come to
Gayle St.
Chairman Fortier closed the public hearing and retumed the item to the
Commission for further discussion and a motion. �
Chairman Fortier— I see that this location meets warrants for a STOP sign.
ACTION: Approve the installation of a "2-Way" STOP control device on
Riverview Ave. at Gayle St.
,
MOTION: J. Fortier
SECOND: F. Petronella
AYES: Unanimous
Tape#CTG21.03 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for pour review.
Please contact the Recording Secretarp at(714)744553G in this regard,advance notice is appreaated. �
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Minutes of a Regular Meeti�_ -City Traffic Commission—March 14,2001 Pg.3
2. Reques� for the installation of an "All-Way" STOP control device at the
intersection of Shaffer St. and Chestnut Ave.
Joe Reiss
1604 N. Shaffer St.
Orange CA 92867 �
Oral presentation is based on the written staff report; p/ease refer to your copy.
Chairman Fortier opened the public hearing for the following:
Joe Reiss, 1604 N. Shaffer St. — I don't believe enough work has been done. [t
. doesn't matter the volume of vehicles what matters is what the vehicles do when
they go down the street. Your study says that in 5 years there haven't been any
accidents, is that at the intersection or the whole street? The accidents don't .
occur just at the intersection they also occur at mid-block locations. We have
discussed this with the Traffic Dept. before, my letter doesn't just ask for STOP
signs, it also requests speed bumps, or some device to block the intersection so
we have cul-de-sacs, how about making these 1-Way streets so its controlled so
only residents will en#er here. The people in this community want a STOP sign
here (submits list of supporting area residents).
Chairman Fortier — Is it the people not stopping at that intersection that is the
problem, what is the problem?
Joe Reiss —That STOP sign you installed is of no va(ue. If you put in a "1-Way"
STOP sign for southbound Shaffer St. that is no value, the problem is the east-
west traffic, they typically drive 50 MPH because if you come off Tustin St. on
Chestnut Ave. all the way to Glassell St., you can bypass 3 major intersections
by cutting through Chestnut. Trenton Ave. and Shaffer St. mirrors our
intersection and you have installed a ST�P sign and as a traffic calming device
� it is awesome. We are asking for the exact same thing on our side.
Chairman Fortier—As a !aw enforcement officer are you aware that traffic controt
devices are not used to deter speed?
Joe Reiss — I'll tell you this, I guarantee you that if you install a STOP sign here
� they will have to slow down because the STOP sign will cause if. I'm not saying
� that they may not run the STOP sign but it will, at the very least, cause them to
slow down.
Chairman Fortier— If we pufi a STOP sign at every corner of every street in the
Ci�fy there would be no speeding, however, we have to move traffic through the
city as efficiently as possible. We have to look at the warrants�and failing to meet
those we may put this location of the special enforcement list for the Police
Traffic Bureau.
Tape#CTG21.03 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for pour review.
Please contact the Recording Secretary at(714)744-5536 in this regard,advance notice is appreciated.
�Printed on Recvcled Paper
Minutes of a Regular Meeti�.�—City Traffic Commission—March 14,2001 Pg.4
Joe Reiss — That is a short term solution and you need a long term solution to
this problem. In 1989 this problem was brought to your attention we're still here
asking for your help.
Commissioner Petronella — Didn't you indicate earlier that it was mainly residents
going in and out of here?
Joe Reiss —Absolutely not, its outside traffic. Tony's Unical uses this route as a
cut-through street to bypass traffic.
Joe Madigan, 727 E. Chestnut Ave. — Yes I agree with these comments. I wish
this were a cul-de-sac.
Dorothv Poole, 1622 N. Shaffer St. — I have only seen one police officer out here
in the 4 years I have lived in this neighborhood. .
Brandon Tavlor, former Chestnut resident — I was crossing the street in front of
my house and I was hit by a speeding truck, I flew through the air and bounced in
front of our next door neighbor and landed 2 houses down. Police indicated the
truck was traveling about 40 MPH. I was in the hospital 3 months, a wheelchair 4
months, I had to re-leam how to walk, pick up things.
AI Connet, 428 E. Chestnut Ave. — Do you remember when the traffic signal was
installed at Shaffer and Meats, about 4 years ago. That's when our speeding
probfems began that is when people began diverting from Meats or Taft and
began using our street at a by-pass. There is no question about the speeds.
Linda Valdez, 707 E. Chestnut Ave. —When you put that cul-de-sac in at Trenton
next to Toyota of Orange all that traffic came over the Chestnuto Back at that
time I asked if you were going to put in a cul-de-sac on Chestnut and Tustin and I
was told yes, and it never happened. Our street is extra wide compared to other
streets in the area, so that is a temptation for speeding because its easier to
drive faster when cars aren't so close together. I suggested right turn diverters at
both ends of Chestnut at Glassell and Cambridge and that would avoid a(I that
� excess traffic coming on our street to take a short-cut it would be better than a
� STOP sign.
�ruce Peterson, 510 E. Chestnut Ave. — Agree with comments of earlier
speakers.
Chairman �Fortier c%sed the public hearing and retumed the item to the
Commission for further discussion and a mofion.
Tape#CTG21.03 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is avai7able for your review.
Please contact the Recording Secretary at(714)744-553G in this regard,advance notice is appreciated.
�
�Printed on Recvcled Paver
Minutes of a Regular Meet�. ,,—City Traffic Commission—March 14,2001 Pg.5
Hamid Bahadori, Mgr. Transportation Services — Based on today's testimony I
think that the report we prepared and presented to you is very narrow in focus as
it oniy focuses on the STOP sign at Chestnut and Shaffer. I believe that your
decision either to approve or deny this instalfation will probably be appealed for a
hearing before the City Council regardless if you deny the installation as
recommended by the report. If you approve the installation it may be an
inadequate form of mitigation of the issue at hand simply due to the narrow focus
of the report. The concerns of the residents are of course legitimate. I would
suggest that this item be continued to the May CTC meeting with a wider focus
and look at Chestnut Ave. as a whole, and as you know Shaffer St. north of Taft
Ave. is the only street in the city that has speed humps. Staff wil{ need this time
to look at issues such as intersection counts in the peak hours to see if there is
potential for through traffic on Chestnut and what those volumes are compared to
other streets, the background of the area, other options and the revised
Residential Neighborhood Traffic Management Program is due for your
consideration sometime in May, so this could be reviewed independently or in the .
context of that revised Program. I am requesting this continuance so we may
collect more data we do not have information about the speed on Chestnut Ave.,
ADT volumes; turning counts from either Tustin, Cambridge or Glassell. We
would like to collect that information and come back to you with a report with
wider coverage and a more comprehensive set of recommendations.
Chairrnan Yarqer— I agree. I think these people have some legitimate concerns
and I'm asking staff to review all types of ineasures that can help curtail the
speed and come back to us in May with a viable plan that we might be able to
make this a much safer street.
e�CTION: Continue to the May meeting with a new report from staffe
MOTIQN: J. Fortier
SECOND: F. Sciarra
/�YES: Unanimous
' Dave Allenbach — It is our poficy normally to notify a 2-house radius around a
subject intersection when we're considering the installation of a STOP control. ,
In this particular case since we are broadening the scope of our study we have
no objection to notifying the residents on both sides of Chestnut Ave. from
Car�bridge St. and Glassell St., and Shaffer St.
Tape#CTC-21.03 of this City Traffic Commission meeting is available for your review.
Please contact the Recording Secretary at(714)744-5536 in this regard,advance notice is appreciated.
I�'
�Printed on Recvcled Paper
Minutes of a Regular Meeti� -City Traffic Commission—March 14,2001 Pg.6
3. Request to remove the "'I-Hour" time limit parking restriction from both sides
of Jefferson Ave. befinreen Shaffer St. and Harwood St.
Dan Armstrong Alain Hasson -
541 E. Jefferson Ave. 634 E. Jefferson Ave.
Orange CA 92866 Orange CA 92866
Oral presentation is based on the written staff report; please refer to your copy.
Chairman Fortier opened the public hearing for the following discussion:
Dave Allenbach — This request is carried over from last month. During the
course of the discussion the CTC felt it prudent to deny the request to remove
the "�-Hour" parking and we were also directed to contact the resident at the
corner of Jefferson Ave. and Shaffer St. (509 E. Jefferson) to see if they would
be receptive to the lengthening of the red curb in front of their property and
. installation of "BUS EXEMPT" sign in that red curb area. We have contacted this
resident by phone and she was in favor of extending the red curb by 40 ft. which
would take away on-street parking in front of her residence, and installation of
"BUS EXEMPT" signs so she can continue to receive curb-side pick-up by the van
that provides her transportation. It is therefore our recommendation that the
request to remove the "1-Hour" time limit parking restriction be denied and
we further recommend the extension of the red curb by 40 ft. in front of
509 E. Jefferson Ave., and the installation of a "BUS EXEMPT" sign.
Alain Hasson, 634 E. Jefferson Ave. — Will the red curb go to the end of her
driveway or go past it? We have no objection to your suggestion.
Dave Allenbach — It ends at the driveway.
Chairman Fortier closed the public hearing and retumed the item to the
Commission for further discussion and a motion:
ACT{ON: Deny the removal of the "'I-Hour" time limit parking
restrictions from both side of Jefferson Ave. between Shaffer St.
and Harwood St.
MOTION: F. Sciarra
SECOND: F. Petronella
AYES: Unanimous
ACTION: Approve the extension of the existing red curb markings on the
north side of Jefferson Ave. east of Shaffer St. to the driveway at
509 E. Jefferson Ave., and the installation of a "BUS EXEMPT" sign
for this red curb area.
MOTION: F. Sciarra
SECOND: F. Petronella
AYES: Unanimous
Tape#CTC-21.03 of this City Traffic Comirussion meeting is available for your review.
Ptease contact the Recording Secretary at_(714)744-5536 in this regard,advance notice is appreciated.
. �Printed on Recvcled Paper
Minutes of a Regular Meeti►,�,—City Traffic Commission—March 14,2001 � pg.7
4. Request to evaluate pedestrian access on Via Escola in proximity to Belmont
Park.
Traffic Engineering Division
CITY OF ORANGE �
This item has� been removed from the Agenda and will be heard next month to
allow notification to affected area residents by the Department of Community &
Library Services.
IV.ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS
A. Report from the Orange Police Department regarding the implementation of
traffic signal mounted cameras for "red light violation" enforcement program.
Sgt. Jackie Gomez-Whiteley . .
Traffic Bureau
ORANGE P�LICE DEPPARTMENT
`The Police Dept. was asked to examine to accident picture in regard to red light
violations and determine if the need exists for the use of red light camera
enforcement. In 1998 there was a program sponsored by Chrysler, the National
Highway Transportation Safety and American Trauma Society, that was called
"STOP on Red Orange County". At that time the graup contacted the Orange
Police Dept. because part of it was associated with UCI Medical Center to see if
we wanted to participate in the program and they prescribed certain criteria,
which included injuries and deaths resultant of accidents caused by red light
rriolations. In 1998 we.did a study and found that our red light violations had not
consistently caused injuries or deaths to meet the group's criteria. From 1994-
1998 four fatalities could be associated to an accident caused by a red light
citation. As a result, we asked our specia! enforcement team to enforce red light
violations with a zero tolerance posture at 3 locations, prescribed at the time
- having a high volume of red light violations . Since then I have conducted a 3-
year study of accidents caused by red light violations. The overall study yielded
. an 8% tota[ of traffic collisions caused by red lights. At least 85°/Q of our
intersections have had at least one red light traffic collision, however, this does
not reach the threshold of a major issue. This issue of red light violations
causing a number of traffic accidents has not been observed. In 3 years 6% of
intersections have had more than 9 traffic accidents related to red light violations.
There has been one additional fatality due to a red light violation since 1998.
' Tape#CTC-21.03 of this City Traffic Comirussion meeting is available for your review.
Please contact the Recording$ecretary at(714)744-5536 in this regard,advance notice is appreciated.
�Printed on Recvcled Paper
Minutes of a Regular Meeti►. -City Traffic Commission—March 14,2001 Pg.8
Although red light camera enforcement has proven a good and effective program
_ in some cities, one study shows they are more effective in cities with large
. intersections and higher traffic volumes. The red light camera program has yet
to be introduced at Central Court which would challenge us to educate the
presiding judge, hearing officers, Traffic Commissioners, ��etc. It would also �
create a manpower issue for the Department as it would be labor intensive, we
would need to employ someone to act as liaison befinreen Orange Police Dept.,
the vendor of the red� light system, the Dept. of Motor Vehicles and the Court.
This has not been tried by any of the surrounding jurisdictions that report to
Central Court in Santa Ana.
When studied in 1998 and again in 2001 we found there has been no consistent
pattern of red light violations that caused injury or death. Data does not suggest
the Department pursue red light violation enforcement at this time. We are
sharing the red light violation data with the motor officers who assisted in the
study I perFormed for the last 3 years so they become more familiar with the
areas prone to higher degree of red light violations and we can take appropriate
enforcement action. We will pay special attention to these intersections that
have a history of higher frequency of traffic accidents caused by red lighf
violations.
Chairman Fortier — You feel traffic signal mounted cameras are not needed due
to the lack of accident history�
Sgt. Gomez-Whitele ,� — Yes sir, it is the belief of the Police Dept. that we
don't meet the threshold of needing this type of aggressive campaign �
enforcement for red light violations and accidents. We don't have the accident
picture that would show if there were a higher number of accidents caused by red
light violations. There are other issues that are associated with it that distract
from the idea at this time. .
Commissioner Petronella — You would have to provide an officer to review the
photos, is that correct? ,
Sqt. Gomez-Whiteley — Yes we would and that is the labor-intensive portion of
this and it would require a staff and budget issue be addressed also.
Chairman Fortier — Wouldn't you also have to enforce mounted front license
plates on cars? � �
Sqt. Gomez-Whiteley—That is correct.
Commissioner Sciarra — tn cities that are providing this enforcement does the
amount of money paid in fines pay for operationat costs to those cities?
Tape#CTC-21.03 of this City Traffic Comr�ussion meeting is ava�able for pour review.
Please contact the Recording Secretary at(714)744553G in this regard,advance notice is appreciated.
�Printed on Recvcled Paver
Minutes of a Regular Meeti►,�--Gity Tra�c Commission—March 14,2001 Pg.9
Sqt. Gomez=WhiteleY —The one neighboring city I am familiar with has only one
intersection with traffic signal mounted cameras for red light violations. I don't
know that they have been involved in the program long enough or at ieast if they
have I'm not aware of that information as far as how much they have collected. I
know that you can designate where the funds go, for example, instead of going
into the General Fund you can make a sidebar agreement where the funds go to
Traffic Safety or Traffic Programs.
ACTION: Receive & File report. �
V. ORAL PRESENTATIONS �
Hamid Bahadori, Mqr. Transportation Services — Formally announced that this wouid
be his final Traffic Commission meeting and wishes to thank its members and staff
and the Police Dept. for their assistance over the�last 5 years.
Chairman Fortier — We think you have done a terrific job and you will be greatly
missed.
Vf.ADJOURNMENT
After discussion of today's Agenda items of the City Traffic Commission was
concluded, and as there were no further requests for action under Oral
Presentations, the Chairman adjourned this session of the City Traffic Commission �
at 4:15 p.m. �
The next regular meeting of the City Traffic Commission will be held Wednesday —
April 11, 2001. �
Respectfully submitted, �
CITY OF ORANGE .
Phyllis Then
Recording Secretary
Traffic Engineering Division
CITY OF ORANGE
DEPARTMENT OF PUBUC WORKS �
TRAFFIC ENGINEERING DIVISION
300 E. CHAPMAN AVE. ,
ORANGE CA 92866
PH: (714)744-5536
Fp►x: (714)744-5573
�March-Minutes[CTC DisklfhenpJ
Tape#C'I'C-21.03 of tlus City Traffic Commission meeting is ava.itable for your review.
Please contact the Recording Secretary at(714)744553b in this regard,advance notice is appreciated.
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