Thursday, November 12, 2009

Monona PSC Brief - Traffic

The Monona Public Safety Commission met last evening (November 11) and heard from about 8 to 10 residents regarding speeding, especially on Winnequah Road. Residents expressed their strong concern that the road is not safe, especially for young pedestrians.

Speakers advocated a number of possible solutions including: stop signs, speed tables and cushions, crosswalks, and alterations to the bump outs. Mayor Kahl, City Administrator Marsh, and Alder Wiswell attended (Alder Veserat and I are members of the PSC). Mayor Kahl also advocated sidewalks.

The PSC heard a report form the police department on speed and crash data. Traffic Speed and Traffic Stats 11-11-09. The city administrator also reported that the rubber speed cushions are used on a seasonal basis in cold weather cities, including Milwaukee.

After a good discussion, the commission vote to ask staff (city engineer and police chief and fire chief) to develop recommendations and bring those back for our review.

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Some members of the PSC seemed less than enthralled with the proposed Residential Traffic Management Program (RTMP Final Draft 11-11-09). Staff, on the other hand, especially the police chief and patrol lieutenant strongly advocated for the proposal because they want a process to evaluate citizen requests for action on traffic issues.

I should note that while I drafted the RTMP, it was originally an idea proposed by the police chief and carried over from before my time on the PSC.

The opposition saw the proposal as unnecessary and heavy-handed. There was some unfortunate confusion about the NTMP Summary document that I included with the draft policy. That summary from Boulder, Colorado suggested several alternatives on how to address the seven issues that tend to come up whenever a municipality develops a traffic management program. Some members thought the summary was part of the proposed program.

Other members and staff supported the idea of having a framework for processing the requests and complaints, although some members did suggest the program could be simplified.

I plan to revise the program a little and the commission will take another look at the policy.

2 comments:

  1. Speaking of your proposed RTMP final draft, did you even proof read your or Madison's work? There are serious mistakes in it!

    Your post today show's your blood pressure is up. RELAX

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  2. I do know of a few corrctions that need to be made, but nothing I thought was too serious (I know it refers to 20 households in one place and 50% in another). But, it was a draft after all.

    Please send me your proofing corrections/suggestions. Really.

    I was confused as to what you meant about my blood pressure until I looked at the "Speed Obsessed" post. I assume you are referring to the gigantic red letters?

    What the post actually shows is that I have a hard time copying text into Firefox and getting the font to look right. I can see why you thought I was not merely shouting, but screaming. Not so. So feel free to relax.

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