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02-16-1994 - Minutes TC 1 , �3 � F. .:G.�.��:':�::�': , .., ....,..: ..... �...,1., . . ' CITY OF ORANGE MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING CITY TRAFFIC COMMISSION Date of Meeting: February 16, 1994 ROLL CALL-PRESENT-COMIVIISSIONERS: J.Fortier,B.Leming,F. Sciarra ABSENT -CONiNIISSIONERS: D.Yarger PRESENT-STAFF: B.Dennis,Lt.E.Tunstall,C. Glass, D Allenbac - D Keys P Then I. APPROVAL OF MINUTES January 12, �994 - APPROVE as published by Recording Secretary. MOTION: F. Sciarra SECOND: B. Leming AYES: Unanimous II. CONSENT CALENDAR 1. Request for the installation of 'NO PARKING' restrictions on the west side of Glassell St. north of Grove Ave. This item was withdrawn from the Agenda and was processed administratively. The signs have already been installed but they are currently bagged due to construction in the immediate azea. MOTION: B. Leming SECOND: F. Sciarra AYES: Unanimous � CITY TRAFFIC CUMMISSION Minutes of Regular Meeting: February 16, 1994 III. CONSIDERATION ITEMS A. Request for additional bus stops in proximity to the intersection of Olive St.and Chapman Ave. Traffic Engineering Division City of Orange Oral presentation is based on the written staff report,please refer to your copy. There was no discussion of this item. Commissioner Leming-How soon will the new bus stop be installed? Bernie Dennis - It goes to the City Council on 1V.Earch 8, 1994, and it should go in the following week.. RECOMMENDATION: That the GTC', by motion, APPROVE the instatlation of an a.dditional bus top on the west side af Lemon St. 100 feet north of Chapmaz�.Ave.,and the appropriate red curb. MOTION: B.Leming � SECOND: J.Fortier AYES: Unanimous B. Request ta consider increasing the posted speed limits on various streets Gifiy-wide. Traffic Engineering Division City of Orange Lt. Ed Tunstall, OPD Traf�ic Bureau -A, recent ruling of the 4th District Caurt of Appe�ls has ruled that Orari�e`s previaus methods far setting speed lirnits in the city are illegal. T�►e ruling basicalty stated that all spe,ed limits in the city must be set within 5 mph of the 85th percentile of � traffic on that particular roadway segment. � Orange ha.s 190 roadway segments, approximafiely 60%of these roa.dway segments are set too low below the 85th percentile, meaning that we ca�nnot work traffc enforcement on these roadwa.y segments. The 85th percentile is that speed of which 85%of the traffic on that roadway segment travel at or below. This is based on the theor�that most people will tra�el a safe speed on a roadway segment and therefore the motoring public establishes for us what the safe speed is on a particular roadwa.y segment. Essentially this Court ruling has eliminated our ability to enforce the speed laws using radar. Tbis is very critical to us because excessive speed is the #1 cause of accidents in our city and radar enforcement is the most effective and accurate way to conduct speed enforcement. 2 � CITY TRAFFIC COMMISSION Minutes of Regular Meeting: February 16, 1994 We have now completed speed surveys on all of the 190 roadway segments and we are coming before you with a recommendation to increase speed limits from 5- 10 mph on many streets in the city. It's important for the Commission, the public and also for the Cifiy Council to understand that these changes are required by law and they are required by Court decision, if we choose not to � comply with the law it will eliminate the Police Dept. ability to enforce speed on most of the street� in the City of Ora.nge. Bernie Dennis, City Traffic Engineer-As we go through the process Qf deterntining the mysticat . 85th percentile of speed and what we do to come up with this we would also like the Commission to consider the 2 recommendations tha.t will be resultant of our prese�a.tion. The first recommendation is that you approve the revised speed linuts as conta.ined in the speed zone survey packet. Secondly,tha.t you consider a rather unusual option. This being the removal of all posted speed Iimits from severai residentaally developed streets within the city. The stre�ts would be t�e narrow parts of Cambridge St., Shaffer St., Almond Ave., Palmyra Ave. The reason that we're asking you to considex this is if we abide with the letter of the lav�these streets will be posted at a speed in excess of 25.mph; 30-35 mph depending on the particular street. However,if we elect not to post the streets then the prima facie 25 mph speed law is in effect and the palice officers will be able to enforce at that limit,when applicable. Prima facie,i.e.,on the face of it,means that the policeman has to be able to justify when the 25 mph is applicable. Obviously they are going to be out there enforcing the 25 mph at those points in time when they think it would be applicable. The Vehicle � Code states that the residentia125 mph prima facie speed only refers to streets that are less than 40 feet wide. How do we get to the 85th percentile speed? The first thing you do is to take any given segment of the 190 - 200 segments of street, go out at a point in time that would be considered average, it must not be a peak hour,it could not be a Friday and it could not be a holiday,but an average day. Then we pick within tha.t average day those time periods, off-peak, wher�tra�c will move in � totally uninfluenced manner �The basic premise is that 85%of the motorists will travel at a speed that they think is safe and prudent for the conditions. The Traffic Engineering profession, the Auto Club and the Cvurt systems have acknowledged this premise. So the idea:is to fiake a sample along each of these street segments,constituting 100 vehicles. Another criteria in setting the speed limit is the PACE. That is a 10 mph increment of speed at which the greatest percentage of the sample is traveling. This is at least a good of an indicator of the motorists tendencies as is the 85th percentile and it gives a little bit of flexibility. In a good speed zone survey on an adequately posted street the 85th percentile will always be within 2-3 mph of the upper end of the PACE. The field data.is brought back to the office and refined and this is checked for accuracy and computer graphics are developed and we will get our'st normal' curve. This particular curve is beneficial because as it is rounded it allows for adjustment of minor idosycrancies in the survey da,ta or changes in the speed, but more importantly it allows you to pick-off percentages of people or vehicles traveling at a.given speed. 3 ` CITY TRAFFIC COMMISSION Minutes of Regular Meeting: February 16, 1994 This information is then transferred, for simplicity,to yet another sheet. This sheet is particularly important because it gives the characteristics of the street or the street segments on which the speed zone survey is being conducted. What we have tried to do is come up with characteristics that would impact either the posting of a speed limit or the motorists decision to drive at a given speed. I� for example, here's the pertinent court information when the spced zone survey was conducted and keep in mind that state law indicates that this has to be re-done every 5 years to continue to be enforced by radar. It gives all the characteristics of the survey,per se,the statistics. At ttus point in time it also covers the accident lustory this leads towazd the generation of accident rate which is a way to compare dissimilar characteristics. This particular street has an accident rate of 2.09 accidents per million vehicle miles, not a whole lot of accidents. However, if this street (a local residential street)instead of an ADT of 12,000 had an ADT of S00 a day it would be a problem. The initial legislation indicated that all of this data would be presented to the courts. That boils down to 3 x 200 of our base court document would be about 600 pages in length. That has been re-evaluated and basically what will now transpire is a summary very similar to what you have. The summary will be certified as to it's accuracy and provide the number of certified copies to the courts, if they wish. Then as we add posted speed limits, as we adjust posted speed limits or each 5 year period when we re-evaluate the posted speed limits,the revised information is again certified and forwarded to the courts. What will this do? It will cost a lot of money,just to give you an example, to change the posted speed limits on Tustin St. it will cost us about$900/mile and there are 4%:miles on Tustin. On a 4-lane facility such as Chapman Ave. it costs us about $700/mile and on 2-lane roadways about $500/mile. The money is actually going to be spent,not so much on new signs because we will be moving some around,but actually on sandblasting and remarking pavement legends. One of the benefits that will come from realistic posted speed limits is to no longer have the necessity to have the'give'spced. In other words, the old tolerance. The police now will be able to enforce very, very close to what the speed limit really is. It won`t be an arbitrary decision for them to make knowing back on Esplanade the 85th percentile is 40 mph and it posted at 30 mph so they don't write any realistically because it won't stand up in court until they get to 45 mph. Well, that negates the meaning of a posted spced limit. It gives an inference to posted speed limits that they are realistic. From time to time we post speed limits that are not a matter of convenience but to avoid life-threatening situations; on horizontal and vertical curves, street problems, high accident rate streets, etc. We don`t want alot of people thinking that since the street is posted at 25 mph it's really safe to drive at 40 mph, because very possibly it won't be. What the courts have done, either rightly or wrongly, is take away the discretionary power of the City Council. Probably they have done this to the benefit of the motorists,I think it will take some time for the residents,particularly on the local streets,to adjust to this. Yice-Chairman Fortier opened the public hearing for the following discussion of this issue. Chairman Sciarra -What about the synrochnization of the signals on the arterials? Will that be ��cea�any.�y? 4 � CITY TRAFFIC COMMISSION Minutes of Regular MeetinQ: February 16, 1994 Bernie Dennis - Every street that we have a synrochnized signal system in operation; Katella, Tustin,Main,La.Veta,Batavia will all have to be re-done. Chainnan Sciarra-Do yau have an estimate for the total work involved? Bernie Dennis-When a11 is sa.id and done I would expect it to cost in excess of$75,000. Commissioner Lemin�-Asked for clarification of recommended posting of Villareal Dr. Bernie Dennis - 15 mph tiorn this point. The Vehicle Code says that if the grade is in excess of 10%the speed limit can be down zoned. If you recall, we had a very high accident rate at this intersection. Vice-Chairman Fortier - I notice that on certain st,reets the 85th percentile varies a little bit, has that been coordinated so you don't ha,ve variable posted spceds? Bemie Dennis - What we've done and we use the continuity of posting. Taft Ave. is a gaod example;there is no reason that we could expect motorists to adjust their speed at%.mile intervals going from 45 - 40 - 35 - 40 - 45 so what we're doing here is saying that w�think we have a righteous exemption to the 85th percentile rule and we think that posting at consistent speed limit � that ma.y vary from the 85th in the best interest of tra�'ic. We may find that 6 months from now we're back adjusting more of these depending on what the court sa.ys. , Glassell is another good example. Where we're south of LaVeta it's 35 mph and north of LaVeta. its 30 mph in through the Plaza at 25 mph and�then cyele back out to 30-35 -40 mph. There is a rea.11y good reason in that simply because we can't handle 35 mph going thru the Plaza. Dorothv Gibson,3032 Oceanview St -IS there provision to past Bixby(north of Eisenhower Park) for 25 mph? There aze alot of people unfamiliar with the azea that wish to access the park facilities and many times they come off Tustin St. and travel Bixby at a very high speed. Dave Allenbach - It'� posted at 2S mph now and it is on the city's ordinance, which means that currently we go out and survey it every 5 years so the police can enforce with radar. If this comes of the list we would remove the 25 mph sign but th�police could still enforce at 25 rnph under the prima.facie residential rule because it's under 40 ft. street width. Dorothy Gibson-Will there be any public educa.tion on this? Vice-Chainnan Fortier-I think that is an exeellent question and I woutd like to see us get in touch with some of the Iocal newsgapers and suggest they run a series of articies that would alert the public to the changes in the speed limits and that enforcement will pursued by the police department. 5 � CITY TRAFFIC COMMISSION Minutes of Regular Meetin�: February 16, 1994 RECOMMENDATION: That the CTC,by motion: A. APPROVE changes of posted speed limits on various city stre�ts as contained in the 'Speed Zone Survey Sumrriary&Posted Speed Limits';and B. Ezempt the following residential streets which are recommended to be removed from the City's Speed Zone Ordinance for enforcement at the Prima Facie 25 MPH: a. Almond Ave. fiom Mai.n St. -Lincoln St. Z. Bixby Ave. from Magnolia St. -Tustin St. 3. Cambridge St. from Palmyra Ave. -Ka,tella Ave. 4. Eckhoff St. from Chapman Ave. -Sycamore Ave. 5. Handy St. from Walnut Ave. -Katella.Ave. 6. Palmyra Ave. from Yorba St. -Esplanade St. 7. Shaffer St. from LaVeta.Ave. -Orange-Olive Rd.. C. An extensive community awareness program be instituted by the Police Department and the Trai�ic Engineering Division of the Public Works Dept.through newspaper articles. MOTION: B.Leming � SECOND: F. Scia.rra. AYES: Unanimous C. Recommended guidelines for the installation of speed humps on gublic streets in the City of Orange. Traf�c Engineering Division Gity of Orange . Chuck Glass-Request to defer this item to the March 9, 199�meeting. MOTION: B. Leming SECOND: F. Sciama AYES: Unanimous 6 L� CI'1'Y 1'RAFFIC CUMMISSION . Minutes of Regular Meetin�: February 16, 1994 � IV. URAL PRESENTATIDNS ° PUBLIC PARTIC'I�'ATIQN-At the conclusion of the meeting of items listed on this agenda., members of the public may address the City Tra�c Commission regarding items of interest to the public that are within the subject jurisdiction of the CTC. No presentation�were made either by staff or members of the public. V. ADJOLfRN1VIENT Discussion of a.Il items before the City Traffic Commission being cornplete, and there being no further requests for action under Oral Presentation,Vice-Chainnan Fortier adjoumed this session of the City Traffi,c Commission to it's next regular meeting,which is scheduled for March 9,1994.. Respectfully submitted, Phyllis Then Recording Secretary Traffic Engineering Division � (7I4)744-553G File Name:Feb(Disk#3B) , 7