93-71 ESTABLISHING YIELD INTERSECTIONS - VIRGINIA AND WESTMINSTER - HILLCREST AND WESTMINSTER - CAROLINA AND WESTMINSTER

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1 EXCERPTS FROM ' TRAFFIC & PARKING COMMITTEE MEETING. SEPTEMBER 8, 1993 Item #3 : Request for yield signs at the intersections of westminster/virginia, Westminster/Hillcrest and Westminster/Carolina. Officer Wayne Hughes was in attendance as a resident of the neighborhood. He statecl that the residents he has talked to are requesting stop signs instead of yield signs, as staff has suggested. He talked about the layout of the area and where stop and yield signs have been placed. He believes that not - everyone knows- what yield means. -�'fie residents have noticed numerous cars crossing paths in front of each other. They feel that stop signs would be better on all the north/south streets and also a four-way stop at Hillcrest and Westminster. The last accident here was when a driver failed to yield, and the acci- dent caused a lot of property damage. He also wants stop signs going north and south at Carolina and Virginia. � �� Ernie Lofland stated there are a lot of children in the neigh- borhood, and they are his main concern other than the traffic. He has seen children ride their bicycles in front of cars numerous times. Sue Mears believes if there were stop signs, children might know there are cars coming. Newell reported that the accident rate at Westminster and Hillcrest is above the expected rate at an average intersection and the rate at Westminster and Virginia is about what you would expect for the amount of traffic. Moffet is the main street accessing Westminster and that is why it has a high traffic count. He based the staff recommendation on what he had heard from the neighborhood ov�r the past two or three years and had not gotten anything definitive from the neighborhood as a whole. He believes the traffic volumes on Westminster bear looking into. The side street traffic is relatively low compared to Westminster, which is used by the neighborhood as a through street. He would be conceriied with a four-way stop at Hillcrest and Westminster because there is almost three times more traffic oi� Westminster as on Ilillcrest. He hears complaints that people run stop signs when t}�ey are placed where they are not wanted or needed. If the true need isn't there, people will not obey the signs. This breeds disrespect to stop signs in general and adds � danger to areas where children expect cars to stop. It develops a false sense of security for the children and their parents. Mike Mears asked why the Commiss�.on doesn't expect people to stop anywhere there is a stop sign.