Traffic Committee

Traffic Committee Agenda DPW Conference Room 4243 Remembrance Rd. NW. Tuesday, February 14, 2023 2:00 PM Committee Members: Scott Conners, P.E., City Engineer / Travis Mabry, P.E., Assistant City Engineer / Gary Postema, DPW Director / Keith Mankel, Chief of Police / Darrel Schmalzel, City Manager / Frank Wash, Assistant City Manager / Melanie Grooters, City Commissioner Agency Representatives: Jason Cole, P.E., MDOT / Matt Van Dyke, Grand Rapids Traffic Signals Discussion Items 1. Follow-up Items: Minutes from the last Traffic Committee meeting will be reviewed. Discussion will occur on items that may require additional follow-up. 2. Nixon Trucks / Speeding: John Olson, 1042 Nixon, is concerned about trucks utilizing Nixon. Mr. Olson is also concerned about vehicles speeding on Nixon. 3. Parkside Parking: The DDA would like the topic of parking on Parkside, north of Lake Michigan discussed. With the recent expansion of the RAPID parking lot on the east side of Parkside, pedestrians have been crossing Parkside to the west, north of the crosswalk, to get to Shots. With vehicles additionally parked on both sides of Parkside, this is resulting in pedestrians surprising drivers as they enter the street from behind parked vehicles. A request was made to consider marking Parkside, north of Lake Michigan, as “No Parking.” An additional request was made to consider signage to direct pedestrians to cross at the crosswalk versus mid-block. 4. Marlin Ct Parking: Carla Cook, Metal Tech - 2860 Marlin Ct, has requested that the east side of Marlin Ct be marked as “No Parking,” from their southern property line to the northern road terminus. Metal Tech has had problems with their neighbor to the south, GRapids Heating and Cooling, continuing to park in this area, which is blocking trucks from being able to access the Metal Tech loading docks. This issue largely occurs on Wednesday mornings, when GRapids has an Page 1 of 9  employee meeting. Metal Tech has discussed this issue with GRapids, and GRapids has largely accepted Metal Tech’s offer for GRapids vehicles to utilize the Metal Tech parking lots for their weekly employee meetings. But some GRpaids vehicles continue to park along Marlin Ct, which is limiting Metal Tech’s access to their truck docks. 5. English Hills Mid-block Crossing: The English Hills development is proposing several mid-block crossings of Northridge. The Engineering Department will review the developer’s proposed plans and facilitate a discussion to obtain Traffic Committee input. 6. Informational Items: 1. Wilson / Richmond Center Turn Lane: MDOT Grand Rapids was notified that their most recent application for an Operations grant to add a center turn lane on Wilson at Richmond was not selected by MDOT Lansing. 2. Residential Speed Limits: The state law with sets residential speed limits is slated to expire at the end of 2023. Discussions are beginning to happen in Lansing regarding whether the current law, which allows local roads in areas zoned as residential to be prima facia 25 mph, should be extended or modified. 7. Upcoming Meeting Schedule: May 9, 2023 DPW Conference Room 2:00 p.m. August 1, 2023 DPW Conference Room 2:00 p.m. November 14, 2023 DPW Conference Room 2:00 p.m. (Please note that the August meeting date has changed, due to a conflict with elections.) Submitted by: Travis Mabry, P.E., Assistant City Engineer CC: City Commission / Deborah Goudy, City Clerk Page 2 of 9 City of Walker - Traffic Committee - February 14, 2023 Item #1 - Follow-up Items City of Walker Traffic Committee Meeting Minutes November 1, 2022 DPW Conference Room 2:00 p.m. Attendance: Scott Conners, P.E., City Engineer / Travis Mabry, P.E., Assistant City Engineer / Gary Postema, DPW Director / Keith Mankel, Chief of Police / Melanie Grooters, City Commissioner / Jason Cole, P.E., MDOT Agenda items are listed in bold, with Committee discussion immediately following: 1. Follow-up Items: Minutes from the last Traffic Committee meeting will be reviewed. Discussion will occur on items that may require additional follow-up. MDOT reviewed the crash history over the past 5 years at the Wilson and Remembrance roundabout. The number of crashes has been consistently around 30 per year. Furthermore, these crashes appear to be spread out among all of the intersection legs versus being concentrated at the northbound Wilson leg; as was the case before pavement marking modifications were made to the northbound Wilson leg. MDOT will continue to monitor the crash history at the roundabout and compare the data to other similar roundabouts in the state, for consideration of future modifications. MDOT and Grand Rapids Traffic Safety (who maintain and operate traffic signals for both MDOT and Walker) worked together to improve the vehicle detection on the O’Brien legs of the Wilson and O’Brien traffic signal. This modification allows the traffic signal to operate more efficiently, thereby reducing the length of back-ups on Wilson that occur during rush hours, especially when nearby interstates are detoured for construction. To help with snow removal operations, Odd / Even parking regulations were recently implemented on streets with multi-family housing. The Traffic Committee reviewed the spacing of the newly posted signs. The Traffic Committee recommends keeping the existing sign spacing for this winter. If residents request that the signs be thinned-out after this winter, the Traffic Committee can consider increasing the distance between signs on a case specific basis. 2. O’Brien Speeding: Deanna Wiltz, 3701 O’Brien, is concerned about speeding and increasing traffic volumes on O’Brien. O’Brien is classified as both a major street and a connector street. Therefore, O’Brien traffic volumes and speeds are expected to be higher than on local streets. Additionally, state law (MCL 257.627) regulates the factors that municipalities are allowed to consider when setting speed limits. The posted speed limit of 45 mph on O’Brien complies with these strict regulations. Page 3 of 9 City of Walker - Traffic Committee - February 14, 2023 Item #1 (cont) - Follow-up Items The Michigan Vehicle Code and the Michigan Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices regulates the criteria for the installation of stop signs. The Engineering Department will review and compare the traffic volumes on O’Brien with those of intersecting streets. Where similar volumes are found, consideration will be given to the possibility of an all-way stop. Elsewhere, stop signs will remain for streets with traffic volumes lower than O’Brien. 3. 3 Mile Truck Route: An anonymous complaint was received from a resident that lives on 3 Mile, between Remembrance and Wilson. The resident is concerned that trucks are utilizing this stretch of the street, which is not part of the City’s truck route system. The Traffic Committee confirmed that 3 Mile, between Remembrance and Wilson, is not part of the truck route system. Trucks that are headed west on 3 Mile are supposed to go around the block, by heading south on Wilson and then northwest on Remembrance. However, with the recent installation of a traffic signal at 3 Mile and Remembrance, it is temping for trucks to just continue west on 3 Mile - due to both a shorter distance and avoidance of the roundabout. While this route may be more efficient, 3 Mile, between Remembrance and Wilson, is not currently constructed to truck route standards. The Traffic Committee recommended that Commissioner Grooters discuss this issue further with the City Commission. Options include 1) leaving the truck route as is and enforcing accordingly; or 2) reconstructing this stretch of 3 Mile to truck route standards and adding it to the City’s truck route system. 4. Alpine / Hillside Traffic Signal: Rachele Wahlfied, 6500 Lonnee Ct (Comstock Park), and Mary Lane (only e-mail address provided), have both requested that left turn green arrows be added for the Hillside to Alpine turning movements. They have experienced having to wait through multiple traffic signal cycles to make a left turn. They have also observed many near miss crashes due to left turning vehicles from Hillside trying to clear the intersection when the signal turns red. These issues tend to occur during rush hours, due to high traffic volumes. The Engineering Department performed a site visit during an afternoon rush hour in September. Extremely heavy traffic volumes were observed on Alpine and heavier than anticipated traffic volumes were observed on Hillside. Due to the need to allocate most of the green time to the traffic on Alpine, the short green time for the Hillside resulted in lengthy back-ups and challenges clearing the intersection after the signal turned red for left turning vehicles. The Traffic Committee discussed that rush hour traffic at this intersection is typically heavy. However, these issues may have been made worse due to a construction closure of the westbound I-96 to southbound US-131 bridge this past summer and early fall. Page 4 of 9 City of Walker - Traffic Committee - February 14, 2023 Item #1 (cont) - Follow-up Items The Engineering Department will conduct another site visit during an afternoon rush hour, now that the westbound I-96 to southbound US-131 bridge has been reopened. If these issues are still occurring, the Engineering Department will work with a consulting engineer to perform a traffic study at this intersection. The study would then be shared with the Traffic Committee for consideration of possible intersection improvements. 5. Informational Item: a. Your Speed Sign: The Police Department is working with the state’s Office of Highway Safety Planning to obtain a grant for the purchase of a radar based “Your Speed” sign. The sign can be posted below speed limit signs to remind motorists of their speed versus the posted speed limit. It can also be moved throughout the City. This sign is similar to the radar trailer unit, with the difference being that it can be directly mounted to existing speed limit sign posts. Similar to the radar trailer, the display can also obtain speed and traffic counts that can be downloaded for further analysis. 6. Upcoming Meeting Schedule: a. February 7, 2023 DPW Conference Room 2:00 p.m. b. May 2, 2023 DPW Conference Room 2:00 p.m. c. August 1, 2023 DPW Conference Room 2:00 p.m. d. November 7, 2023 DPW Conference Room 2:00 p.m. Submitted by: Travis Mabry, P.E., Assistant City Engineer CC: City Commission Deborah Goudy, City Clerk Deanna Wiltz, 3701 O’Brien Rachele Wahlfied, 6500 Lonnee Ct (Comstock Park) Mary Lane, e-mail Page 5 of 9 City of Walker - Traffic Committee - February 14, 2023 Item #2 - Nixon Trucks / Speeding Location Street View - Looking North Page 6 of 9 City of Walker - Traffic Committee - February 14, 2023 Item #2 (cont) - Nixon Trucks / Speeding Page 7 of 9 City of Walker - Traffic Committee - February 14, 2023 Item #3 - Parkside Parking Location Street View Lake Michigan at Parkside - Looking Northwest Page 8 of 9 City of Walker - Traffic Committee - February 14, 2023 Item #4 - Marlin Ct Parking Location Security Camera Street View Metal Tech - Looking at Marlin Ct Marlin Ct at 3 Mile - Looking South Page 9 of 9