Focus on Pilot Projects to allow Progress to occur and Practices to Change/Evolve in the face of a Profession often focused on Perfection

I tried to use as many "P" words as I could in that title!

I am a firm believer in sharing success stories and lessons learned so that we can all continue to win serving the people in our communities to the best of our abilities. My hope is that this success story will help you expand the possibilities and opportunities to address your community needs and challenges.

Have you ever heard of the saying "Perfection is the enemy of Progress"? Sometimes we, as Transportation Professionals, are so focused on getting it "right" that we fail to actually "do" or "try". Or worse, we do not step back and make sure we are focusing on the right things. Failure to me is "not trying". Failure to me is also doing the same thing we have always done and expecting a different result.

Many public works capital projects and processes take years, if not decades, to fund and deliver along with millions of dollars and thousands of hours of staff time. And in the interim the community does not experience any change with that old approach. The community's needs and concerns are not addressed because the process is often bigger than the result.

So if we reframe failure to success, the question then becomes how do we try something different to see if it will achieve the desired results with community support more quickly? And the answer is delivering solutions that are quicker, lighter, and cost effective (AKA pilot or demonstration projects) that are focused on serving the community needs.

I wanted to share a story about a local agency's transportation team trying hard to serve the needs of its people, neighborhoods and community by trying and doing. The City of Carlsbad is that local agency.  A disclaimer, I worked for the City of Carlsbad as the Deputy Transportation Director/City Traffic Engineer and am honored to continue to work with the fine team of of transportation professionals as a consultant with Alta Planning + Design.

Defining the Situation & Problem

Cadenica Street by California Vehicle Code (law) has a section of roadway that is a quasi-residential street yet with a posted speed limit 40 MPH connecting two prima facie 25 MPH defined residential street sections.

The 40 MPH section does not meet the criteria by law to be a prima facie 25 MPH residential street. The 40 MPH is determined by the 85th percentile driver (i.e. 85 out of 100 drivers drive at or below that speed). Design and characteristics of the roadway determine driver's behavior and feeling of safety. When drivers feel safer they often increase their speed. I have often coined this increase of speed as a "false sense of security" based on design of roadway for drivers. After all, as a transportation profession, we know speed has a direct correlation with severity of a collision and safety of a roadway, especially when people are involved. And we also know people make poor decisions and mistakes so why not design a roadway so that when they do, a life altering injury or fatality are not the result.

Why not design the roadway so that through design the roadway has 24 hour enforcement of the desired maximum target speed that 100% of the motorists drive at or below. Historically our profession often designs a roadway for all types of motorists and vehicles to feel safe to drive at a minimum speed, which is the goal of determining the "design speed" based on the highway design manual for each design project. And then law enforcement often does not write a speeding moving citation until you are 10-15 MPH over the posted speed limit. In many residential areas some motorists drive in excess of 35-40 MPH.

The known problems on Cadencia;

?High vehicle speeds on Cadencia Street create fear of potential safety issues for children walking to school, people waiting for bus, and motorists pulling into and out of driveways,

?Wide roadway due to 8' of roadway width space allocated to parking on both sides of the road,

?Large residential lots on one side with infrequent driveways and back up homes on the other side create little friction,

?Relatively low traffic volumes so very little vehicle friction

?Steep roadway where motorists rev their engines uphill and can gain a lot of speed by just taking their foot off the brake downhill

?Uncontrolled intersections make for challenging access (hard to judge access gaps due to speeds), and

?Auto-oriented streets distract from residential character and negatively impact all roadway users

The Goals of the Pilot Project for Cadencia

?Lower vehicle speed by redefining roadway character

?Change driver behavior

?Enhance residential character

?Consider all roadway users

?Encourage drivers to travel at target speed

?Don’t punish drivers traveling at the target speed

?Horizontal Deflection is desired over Vertical Deflection due to downhill slope

?Self-enforcing

?Cost effective solution

?Implementation quickly within 4-6 months

?Community supported

The Solution

Provide low cost, easy to implement traffic calming solutions that breaks up the roadway with a desired target maximum speed of 25 MPH. Alta Planning + Design engineers in collaboration with City of Carlsbad transportation team staff identified the need for a tool box of solutions for both midblock and at the intersections. The tool box included painting the street a color different than the roadway and utilizing 8" ceramic domes. The concepts below are not the chosen colors and the dimensions of the deflection can be modified for desire target speed. Based on feedback and evaluation after the pilot project is implemented one device could be modified or switched out for another device. In addition, the concept traffic calming measures could be made more permanent (with concrete and/or landscaping) if the desired target speed is achieved. And while that more expensive and permanent solution is being designed and funding identified, this cost effective and quick pilot project is in place serving the community.

The tool box for intersections

The tool box for midblock

And put together along the corridor with frequent spacing to discourage increasing speed in between device measures.

 If the desired target maximum speed is 25 MPH is achieved the impact of travelling on the corridor would be just seconds.

 Cadencia Street is a good opportunity to evaluate these low-cost traffic calming measures. These measures can be changed or redesigned as needed at a very low cost. This pilot project will guide future projects of a similar nature.

The City of Carlsbad invited people that lived on Cadencia Street and also drive on Cadencia Street from the adjacent streets to a community meeting to learn about the traffic calming measures in a presentation and open house format with staff and consultant team available for questions and answers. At the meeting the nearly 70 people provided a lot of positive input and feedback so that Cadencia Street could become more of a residential like street.

Next Steps

At the community meeting the next steps were identified as;

?Review comments from community meeting and finalize plans

?Traffic Safety Commission (neighborhood mailer)

?City Council

?Installation

?Online survey to collect/respond to feedback after implementation

?Engineering and Speed Survey to Establish new speed limit based on roadway design

The San Diego Union Tribune covered the community meeting and wrote an article here.

Draft engineering plans of the concepts based on community feedback at the community meeting.

 Let me know if your community is experiencing challenges with active transportation, connectivity, sustainability, mobility choices, access for all, safety, public health or quality of life. Would love to work with you to find opportunities to help move your community in the direction of its potential.