09/08/1975 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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------- - He thought the traffic speeds would become more and more of an issue, since the existing speed bumps would probably have to be removed because of a change in state law, and new and different alternatives would have to be found. Councilman Bradley noted his opposition to increasing speeds when the question was e originally before the Council. He said he was still opposed to any increase, that the value of human life was more important than consistency in traffic flow. Councilman Keller thought it might be well to post Agate Street at 25 mph to give an opportunity to see what would happen, perhaps a word of caution to residents of that area to slow down. He recognized the uniqueness of the street and the probl ems i t presented. Mr. Keller moved second by Mrs. Beal to accept the State Speed Control Board recommendations on all of the streets presented. In response to Councilman Williams, Mr. Keller said the intent of his motion was to accept Speed Board action on all of the streets listed, including Donald and Villard on which the city staff had also disagreed. Councilwoman Shirey was in favor of the motion. She could see no reason to condone the speed at which people were actually traveling by making that the posted speed. Councilman Bradley said he was against the motion because initially he did not sup- port increasing the speed on any of the streets. His vote, he said, was against the recommendation of the Speed Board, not because he disagreed with the staff recommendation. Don Allen, public works director, noted that staff assumed when the Council recog- nized installation of diverters, it had also recognized the arterial street program. He explained that the State Speed Control Board set speeds on city streets after initiation by city staff. He wondered if the Council intended by its action on - these recommendations to forego that procedure, whether in the future recommenda- tions for increased speeds would not be approved by the Council. Councilman Keller noted there were some increases in the list presented, but he said this vote was not advocating that all speeds would be reduced. It was just that he thought all increases would not be accepted. . Vote was taken on the motion to accept the Speed Board recommendations Corom as presented. Motion carried, all Council members present voting aye, 9/3/75 Councilman Bradley voting no, Councilman Hamel not present. See acti on .below Councilman Haws came back to the question of how speeds would be controlled, assum- ing speed bumps would not work and that posted speeds were not necessarily observed. Traffic Engineer Williams said there appeared to be no answer, it was a constant problem prevalent throughout the nation. In the final analysis, the solution had to rest with the individual driver. He said that further studies would be conducted after posting of the 25 mph speed on Agate Street to determine the effectiveness of that posting. He noted that the complaints usually were about the individual violations of speed limits, not the major flow of traffic, and he called attention to state law that provided citations could not be written after the fact. He said there had been some programs where certain persons were authorized to report license numbers, time of day, type of violation, and then the owner of that car was advised of the violation. But he said in this metropolitan area, assuming 10% of total trips per day were violators, violations could amount to about 35,000 every day. So it came down to a matter of changing people's habits. He added the suggestion that help of neighborhood groups might be enlisted in an effort to effectively change the community's commitments. Tom Hochstatter, 745 Sprague Street, principal of Westmoreland School, proposed that - the speed on City View be set at 30 mph rather than 35 mph. He called the Council's attention to the number of children attending Westmoreland and the fact that the I-A-5 street bordered the school grounds. He agreed that signing didn't particularly help 9/8/75 - 12 500