98-80 DESIGNATING FOUR-WAY STOP INTERSECTIONS

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il . , EXCERPTS FROM MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE TRAFFIC AND PARKING COMMISSION Wednesday, October 14, 1998 ITEM#1 Request for stop signs at the intersections of Leafland Avenue/Lowber Street and Leafland Avenue/Charles Street. Mr. Harvey Works, 966 East Cantrell, stated that everybody in the neighborhood has agreed they would like to have a four-way stop at the intersection of Leafland and Lowber, but they would settle for a two-way stop. There are a lot of chiidren in the area, and a lot of people go to work and come from work taking a short cut on Lowber to bypass the traffic light. This traffic is very ', fast. Stop signs at this place could eliminate a lot of unnecessary traf�ic in the neighborhood. The last accident at the intersection of Leafland and Lowber upset a lot of people, which is why the neighborhood group is asking for these stop signs. Mr. Ural Wynne, 1431 East Leafland, stated that when traffic turns off of Jasper Street onto Leafland, there is no stop sign or anything on this street so they have a straight shot through. It seems that most of the drivers are speeding. Some people use the area to test cars out. Mr. Works thinks that each intersection is separate, and he would like to see a stop sign at each of them. Traffic coming from Grand Street would have to stop also. It is in the Durfee School area. There are children at the old Centennial School in the afternoon. There is also a church in the neighborhood. Commander Richard Ryan stated the speeds did not seem to be a contributing factor, but he noted a visibility factor. There is a hedge which causes the visibility problem. He does not see anything that shows an out-of-proportion speed. Ryan feels there are too many accidents and something needs to be done, particularly on Lowber. He believes there are two issues and concurs with the stop sign as recommended on Lowber, which should address the accident issue. According to the data, the speeds are not very high. Mr. Wynne believes that if a stop sign is installed at Lowber, there are two blocks where speeds , are not regulated. He thinks the traffic study was not done for a long enough time. Matthew Newell has data which shows average speeds on an hourly basis for these intersections. Only one car went over 40 mph during the 24-hour period. The accidents were all angle accidents, which would lead him to believe that visibility was a problem. Ryan would concur with the staff recommendation concerning the accidents, but he would like to hear more about the speed issue.