Bear Creek Drive (BCD)Safety Concerns and Traffic Survey

Madison Place HOAJuly 2004 - JR Hofmann, D. Hrebin

Concerns

1. Speeding

2. BCD is used for the most part as a freeway for access from West Glade Road to the Heatherwood Estate and Versailles Parc sub-divisions.

3. BCD is also used at all hours as a pedestrian walk by residents.

Statistics

• BCD Configuration– Secondary Collector:

41ft. width

– Almost 1800 ft. of unobstructed and straight roadway

– Speed limit: 30 MPG

– No other speed control devices currently in place

• Population– Madison Place:

121 residences

– Versailles Parc: 51 residences

– Heatherwood estates: 128 residences

Views of Bear Creek Drive

From Glade Road From Versailles Parc

Bear Creek Traffic Study April 2004

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

15 - 19 20 - 24 25 - 29 30 - 34 35 - 39 40 - 44 45 - 49 50 -54 55 - 59 60 - 64 65 - 69 70 - 74 75 +

Speed range

Veh

icle

co

un

t

Northbound

Southbound

Resident Observations

• 7/10/ 04 - Contractor’s child (lot 5) darts from between parked cars, speeding northbound vehicle narrowly misses.

• 7/08/04 - Two Papa John’s pizza delivery vehicles racing north on BCD at approximately 50 MPH.

• 6/04 - Vehicle speeding northbound on BCD almost collides with vehicle exiting Dalton Drive. Visibility restricted due to construction vehicle parked overnight on BCD at lot 1.

• 5/04 - Blue Eclipse runs stop sign on Dalton Drive and almost collides with a speeding southbound Jeep on BCD. Both vehicles almost jumped curb.

• 11/03 - Pizza delivery vehicle almost collides with BMW entering BCD from Dalton Drive. BMW driver threatens to shoot pizza driver.

Next Steps • According to the US Department of Justice…, a driver's perception of the

roadway determines the speed at which they think it is safe to drive. – If drivers are speeding through your neighborhood, then the road may be too wide

and straight.– Accordingly, the roadway may need to be changed in order to cause drivers to

perceive that a fast speed is not okay on your neighborhood streets.

• Higher speed crashes are much more lethal to pedestrians, with an 85% chance of a fatal injury to a pedestrian at 40 mph compared to a 5% chance of a fatality at 20 mph.

• Trraffic calming approaches should be used to reduce speeding.

• More information can be obtained at: http://www.walkinginfo.org/cps/guide_issue1.htm

Traffic Calming Treatments

• Curb Extensions• Chokers• Crossing Islands• Chicanes (example on right)• Mini-Circles• Speed Humps• Speed Table• Raised Intersections• Raised Pedestrian Crossings• Gateways• Landscaping• Specific Paving Treatments• Serpentine Design• Woonerf

Who Pays for Traffic Calming?

• The city or town may cover part or all of the cost of the traffic calming device depending on how serious the speeding problem is and how expensive it is to fix it. Likewise, it is also possible that you and your neighbors may be asked to cover part or all of the cost of the device.

• Your homeowner's association (if you have one in your neighborhood) or some other neighborhood association may be able to cover the expense if it decides the issue is important enough.

• Because many localities have more requests for traffic calming than funds to implement them, if your neighborhood is able to raise some funds on its own, then your city or town will be more likely to provide matching funds to construct traffic calming in your neighborhood.

Status

• The Madison Place HOA has worked with the Hurst City Engineer’s office for one year regarding viable avenues to control vehicle speed on BCD.

• Madison Place HOA contacted Versailles Parc HOA and requests residence awareness level raised in April 2004.

• The City Engineer feels that it is now a law enforcement issue - 7/13/04