Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Lane Striping on 4th Street

Towards the end of this week, DPW is anticipating finishing the lane striping on 4th Street from Ashford Boulevard to Cherry Lane.  The existing bike lanes will continue on for this entire segment, with access to the Gude Lake paths via the new widened median openings.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Mapping Pedestrian and Bike Crashes

DPW has developed a database of all of the City's pedestrian and bike crashes. The database contains crash data starting in 2007 and is updated as we receive police crash reports.  Over time, this information provides another set of data that we can apply when prioritizing roadway safety improvements.  This database will also allow us to measure the long term effect of these safety improvements.  The pedestrian and bike crash database contains location; date; time of day; crash type; injury; and jurisdiction (City-owned street versus State-owned street).  With only 4 full years of data available right now, statistically significant trends can not yet emerge. However, of particular note:
  • The City, with a population of 25,000, has about 17 pedestrian or bike crashes per year.
  • There are 3 pedestrian crashes for every bike crash.
  • 3:00pm to 6:00pm is the most likely time period for crashes.
  • No injury was reported in 21% of crashes.
  • One-fifth of all pedestrian or bike crashes occur in a parking lot.
  • The areas that appear to have the most daytime pedestrian and bike traffic (commercial portion of Main Street, commercial portion of 4th Street, and Bowie Road) have very few reported crashes. See map below.

Click on map for PDF.  Excludes crashes in parking lots.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Decorative sign posts on Main Street

At the intersection of 5th & Main Streets, DPW is replacing wooden 4x4 sign posts with black aluminum historic sign poles to match the existing historic luminaires. Three wooden posts will be replaced, and the new crosswalk sign pole will be moved off of the sidewalk and onto the new bump-out to increase its visibility. In addition, the sign frames have been added to match the historic-style sign poles.