Traffic Commission Meeting

URBANA TRAFFIC COMMISSION Approved January 3, 2019 1 2 3 DATE: Tuesday, December 4, 2018 4 TIME: 4:00 P.M. 5 PLACE: Urbana Public Works Department, 706 South Glover Avenue 6 7 UNAPPROVED MINUTES 8 9 MEMBERS PRESENT: 10 11 Craig Shonkwiler, Assistant City Engineer 12 Bob Fitzgerald, Interim Deputy Chief 13 14 MEMBERS ABSENT: 15 16 Eric Jakobsson, City Council Member, Ward 2, Chair 17 18 OTHERS PRESENT: 19 20 Marvin Livingston, Cunningham Children’s Home 21 Shannon Beranek, Civil Engineer, City of Urbana 22 David Jayme, Civil Engineer, City of Urbana 23 24 The meeting began at 4:00 p.m. In Mr. Jakobsson’s absence, Mr. Shonkwiler assumed the chair. 25 26 Approval of Minutes: 27 28 Bob Fitzgerald moved to approve the minutes of the October 2, 2018 meeting. Craig Shonkwiler 29 seconded the motion. The Commission voted 2-0 to approve the minutes of the October meeting. 30 31 Additions to the agenda: 32 33 Craig Shonkwiler moved to change the order of agenda and hear items 3 and 4 before item 1 34 to accommodate those in attendance. 35 36 Bob Fitzgerald seconded the motion. 37 38 The motion was approved 2-0. 39 40 Public Input 41 42 Those wishing to provide input did so as items were discussed.  Traffic Commission Minutes APPROVED December 2018 Page 2 1 Unfinished Business 2 3 There was no unfinished business. 4 5 New Business 6 7 Item #1- Discussion of signage on Country Club Road, west of Division Avenue to North 8 Willow Road near the Cunningham Children’s Home (1303 North Cunningham 9 Avenue). 10 11 Mr. Shonkwiler discussed a request from Cunningham Children’s Home for the installation of school 12 zone signage on Country Club Road after development occurs within the Cunningham Children’s 13 Home property. 14 15 Marlin Livingston from Cunningham Children’s Home explained that once the construction of a new 16 education facility was completed, students would load and unload from buses within the school 17 property. He said there would be little foot traffic since most students would either arrive by bus or 18 reside within the facility. He added that there would be gated courtyards for students during recess, but 19 he was concerned that a student might dart out into traffic. He clarified that no students would load or 20 unload onto a City street. 21 22 Mr. Shonkwiler asked if the school had contacted the Illinois Department of Transportation to ask for 23 signage on Cunningham Avenue. 24 25 Mr. Livingston said that he had not. 26 27 Mr. Shonkwiler asked how many instances of students darting out into traffic occurred last year. 28 29 Mr. Livingston said there were maybe two or three incidents per year. He said that delayed exits in the 30 new facility and a heavy staff presence would probably reduce the problem. He felt that the probability 31 of a student running out into traffic would be rare with the new safeguards. 32 33 Shannon Beranek discussed the City staff report. She explained that the City used the Manual on 34 Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), along with the Illinois Supplement (ILMUTCD) to the 35 MUTCD for guidance when installing signage. Ms. Beranek stated that the proximity of the school and 36 the number of students travelling to and from the school were considerations when determining 37 whether signage should be installed. As mentioned earlier, she said that the loading and unloading of 38 students would occur within the school property. She noted that there were fences and a pond on the 39 grounds that created barriers to Country Club Road. In addition, she pointed out that there were few 40 students who walked to school. As a result, Ms. Beranek concluded that students did not use Country 41 Club Road to access the school so City staff would not recommend the installation of school zone 42 signage on Country Club Road. 43 44 Mr. Shonkwiler explained that the MUTCD criteria were used to provide consistent, uniform messages 45 for roadway users. He added that if there were any changes in proposed conditions, the item could be 46 revisited. 47  Traffic Commission Minutes APPROVED December 2018 Page 3 1 Mr. Shonkwiler moved to follow City staff recommendations and not install school zone signage on 2 Country Club Road. 3 4 Assistant Chief Fitzgerald seconded the motion. 5 6 The motion passed 2-0. 7 8 Item #2- Discussion of signage on Division Avenue near the Cunningham Children’s 9 Home. 10 11 Mr. Shonkwiler said there would be no problem removing the school zone signage on Division Avenue 12 once the new education facility opened. He asked Mr. Livingston to contact him once the move had 13 been completed so the signage could be removed. He explained that the reason for installing school 14 zone signage on Division Avenue and not on Country Club Road. He said that the current loading and 15 unloading of students occurred on Division Avenue, but that the new plan would permit the loading 16 and unloading of students within the school property. 17 18 Mr. Shonkwiler moved to remove the school zone signage on Division Avenue once students occupied 19 the new facility. 20 21 Assistant Chief Fitzgerald seconded the motion. 22 23 The motion was approved 2-0. 24 25 Mr. Livingston asked that the parking restrictions on Division Avenue remain for the safety of 26 students. 27 28 Mr. Shonkwiler stated that parking restrictions along Division Avenue would be discussed after the new 29 facility was open. 30 31 Item #3- Discussion of the meeting calendar for 2019. 32 33 The Recording Secretary presented the meeting calendar to the Traffic Commission and noted that the 34 January meeting conflicted with a City holiday. 35 36 Craig Shonkwiler suggested moving the January meeting to Thursday, January 3, 2019. 37 38 Robert Fitzgerald moved to approve the 2019 calendar with the January meeting scheduled for 39 Thursday, January 3, 2019. 40 41 Mr. Shonkwiler seconded the motion. 42 43 The motion was approved 2-0. 44  Traffic Commission Minutes APPROVED December 2018 Page 4 1 Item #4- Discussion of traffic control at Park Street and Broadway Avenue. 2 3 Mr. Shonkwiler reviewed a request sent to the Engineering Division for a multi-way stop at the 4 intersection of Park Street and Broadway Avenue. 5 6 David Jayme presented the results of a traffic study conducted at the intersection of Park Street and 7 Broadway Avenue. He reviewed warrants defined in the MUTCD required to justify the installation of 8 a multi-way stop at the intersection. 9 10 To satisfy Warrant A, the intersection would require the temporary installation of a multi-way 11 stop if traffic signals were to be installed. Traffic signals were not warranted at the intersection 12 so a multi-way stop would not be justified under this warrant. 13 14 For Warrant B, five or more crashes would have occurred within a twelve-month period within 15 the past five years. Although one twelve-month period had four crashes, the data did not justify 16 the installation of a multi-way stop. 17 18 For Warrant C, 1. traffic from the major street would have to average at least 300 vehicles per 19 hour for an eight-hour period and 2. the combined traffic (vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians) 20 would have to average at least 200 units per hour on the minor street for the same eight-hour 21 period, with an average thirty-second delay for vehicles on the minor street during the hour 22 with the highest volume of traffic. But if the 85th percentile travel over 40 miles per hour, the 23 minimum for vehicular volume warrants are 70 percent of the values for the major and minor 24 streets. The average vehicular volume for the major street was 397 vehicles and the average 25 combined volume for the minor street was 301, but the delay was thirteen seconds for 26 eastbound traffic on the minor street; twelve seconds for westbound traffic. The 85th percentile 27 speed for traffic on the major street was not 40 miles per hour, so Warrant C was not met. 28 29 For Warrant D, if no single criterion was met, but eighty percent of Warrants B, C1 and C2 30 were met, a multi-way stop would be justified. Warrant B and C1 were met, but C2 was not 31 met when reducing the values to 80 percent. Therefore, Warrant D was not met. 32 33 Overall, Mr. Jayme concluded that the intersection did not meet the recommended warrants for the 34 installation of a multi-way stop. 35 36 Mr. Shonkwiler mentioned a project under development by the Urbana Park District to install 37 sidewalks along the north side of Park Street between Broadway Avenue and Church Street. He said 38 that as part of the project a marked crosswalk would be installed on the north leg of Broadway Avenue 39 at Park Street. He said that the Urbana Park District followed the crosswalk guidelines established by 40 the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission and that the marked crosswalk was 41 recommended at that location. He said that the intersection would be monitored and reviewed if any 42 changes were noted. He explained that the intersection proximity to University Avenue made traffic 43 control options at Broadway Avenue and Park Street very difficult. 44 45 Mr. Shonkwiler moved not to install multi-way stop signs at the intersection of Broadway Avenue and 46 Park Street. 47  Traffic Commission Minutes APPROVED December 2018 Page 5 1 Assistant Chief Fitzgerald seconded the motion. 2 3 The motion was approved 2-0. 4 5 With no other business at hand, the meeting adjourned at 4:27 p.m. 6 7 The next regularly scheduled Traffic Commission meeting is scheduled for Thursday, January 3, 2019, 8 at 4:00 p.m. at the Urbana Public Works Department, 706 Glover Avenue, second floor conference 9 room. 10 11 Respectfully submitted, 12 Barbara Stiehl, Recording Secretary