New Street Lighting

DPW has ordered additional street lighting for the following three locations:

• Ward Street
• Van Dusen Road, just south of Erica Lane
• Intersection of 4th and Montrose (upgraded lighting)

These additional lights should in place in about a month.

Effects of Traffic Calming on Montrose Ave: Before and After Study

Traffic calming has previously been shown to reduce instances of speed in the City.  And now here's more poof:

This summer, the City installed a traffic calming island in the intersection of Montrose and 10th Street in order to slow down motorists on Montrose Ave, which has a speed limit of 25mph. This new concrete center-island median is bisected with a ladder-style crosswalk and has added signage to improve visibility.  DPW conducted a "before" study to determine the number of speeders prior to its installation. After letting drivers adjust to the presence of the new island for a couple of months, we conducted an "after" study to compare the island's effect on driver behavior.  Here are the results:

1. Speeders in excess of 25 mph decreased from 72.5% of all vehicles to 41.3% of all vehicles.
2. Speeders in excess of 30 mph decreased from 47.7% of all vehicles to 14.1% of all vehicles.
3. Speeders in excess of 35 mph decreased from 19.4% of all vehicles to  2.4% of all vehicles.
4. Speeders in excess of 40 mph decreased from 4.7% of all vehicles to 0.3% of all vehicles.

The results, while not perfect, show that speeding drivers slow down dramatically when there is a large concrete island in the middle of the road; speeding drivers apparently prefer slowing down over crashing. Call it blunt, but nothing else reduces speed as much, or is more cost-effective than simply removing, by design, the ability to speed.

Before and After Study showing effect of traffic calming on Vehicle Speeds

New Traffic Calming Island at Montrose & 10th

Speed profile data collected on Montrose Ave, just east of 10th Street, showed a high number of speeders and an intolerably high number of excessive speeders (35+ mph in a 25 mph zone). See data below:

To mediate this, the City is installing a center-island median (26' long by 10' wide) in the intersection. This median will serve two purposes:  1) focus attention of motorists toward the intersection where a new crosswalk is being installed; and 2) force speeders to slow down to a residential speed.

The new island will look something like this and will be bisected by a ladder-style crosswalk:

Status update:  Complete.

Traffic Calming: Before-and-After Study

The City of Laurel conducted a Before-and-After Study of traffic calming measures at two locations in the City:
1) Greenview Drive
2) Montrose Traffic Circle.

Results:

• Narrowing the roadway on Greenview, by striping parking lanes, resulted in an 11% reduction in all speeders and a 21% reduction in motorists who exceeded the speed limit by 10+ mph.
• Constricting the westbound lane entering the Montrose traffic circle from 16 ft to 13 ft wide and adding splitter islands to the traffic circle reduced the number of speeders (25+mph) by 80%. Motorists traveling 30+ mph were reduced by 96%.

(click Greenview graph for larger figure)

(click Montrose graph for larger figure)

Current or Pending Pedestrian Safety Improvements (updated weekly)

4^th Street

• ADA compliant sidewalk ramps
• Repair broken and uneven sidewalk
  
  
  
  High Visibility Decorative Crosswalks at multiple Locations
• Pedestrian Crosswalk Locator Signs

Update: Completed July, 2009

8^th Street

• ADA compliant sidewalk ramps
• Repair broken and uneven sidewalk
• High-visibility crosswalks at McCullagh Field

Update: Complete

9^th Street

• ADA compliant sidewalk ramps
• Repair broken and uneven sidewalk

Update: Completed July, 2009

10^th Street

• ADA compliant sidewalk ramps
• Repair broken and uneven sidewalk

Update: Completed July, 2009

Alan Drive

• Repair broken and uneven sidewalk
• ADA compliant sidewalk ramps

Update: Completed July, 2009

Carrissa Lane

• ADA compliant sidewalk ramps
• Repair broken and uneven sidewalk

Update: Completed July, 2009

Dorset Road

• ADA compliant sidewalk ramps at crosswalks in front of Scotchtown Hills Elementary School

Update: Completed

Fairlawn Ave

• ADA compliant sidewalk ramps
• Repair broken and uneven sidewalk

Update: Completed July, 2009

Greenview Drive

• High Visibility Crosswalks at Clubhouse Lan
• Pedestrian Crosswalk Locator Sign
• Striping for parking lane to address traffic calming

See Figure 1 for illustration.

Update: Complete

Kalmia Drive

• ADA compliant sidewalk ramps
• High Visibility Crosswalks at Erica Lane
  
  
  
• Repair broken and uneven sidewalk

Update: Completed July, 2009

KillBarron Road

• Complete Sidewalk on north side to Van Dusen Roadpedestrian side path. See Figure 2.
  
  
  

Update: Completed July, 2009

Lafayette Street

• ADA compliant sidewalk ramps
• Repair broken and uneven sidewalk

Update: Completed July, 2009

Laurel Oaks Lane

• 
  
  
  
  ADA compliant sidewalk ramps
• 
  
  
  
  Repair broken and uneven sidewalk
  
  
  
  
  Update: Completed July, 2009

Laurelton Drive

• ADA compliant sidewalk ramps
• Repair broken and uneven sidewalk

Update: Completed July, 2009

Main Street

• Sidewalk Bulb-outs at 5^th Street. See Figure 4.

Update: Completed - Spring 2010

Montgomery Street

• Traffic Calming near 10th Street. See Figure 10.
• ADA compliant sidewalk ramps
• Repair broken and uneven sidewalk
• Traffic Calming at 11th Street. See Figure 11.

Update: Completed

 

Montrose Ave

• High Visibility Crosswalks at Centennial Park
• Pedestrian Crosswalk Locator Signs at Centennial Park. See Figure 8.
• Concrete Islands and Pedestrian Crosswalk Locator Signs at Traffic Circle. See Figure 7.
  
  
  

Update: Completed

St. Mary’s Ave

• ADA compliant sidewalk ramps
• Repair broken and uneven sidewalk
• High Visibility Decorative Crosswalks at multiple Locations

Update: Complete.

Van Dusen Road

• Countdown Pedestrian Signal (CPS) and Audible Pedestrian Signal (APS) at intersection with Killbarron Road. See Figure 3. Completed September 2009
• Countdown Pedestrian Signal (CPS) and Audible Pedestrian Signal (APS) at intersection with Cherry Lane. See Figure 9.  Update: Completed July,2009
• High-Visibility Crosswalk at Killbarron Drive. Update: Completed August 2009

Ward Street

• ADA compliant sidewalk ramps
• Repair broken and uneven sidewalk

Update: Complete

FIGURES

Figure 1: Proposed striping/signage improvements to the intersection of Clubhouse and Greenview

Figure 2: Missing Sidewalk on Killbarron (before) and New Sidewalk leading up to the asphalt path on Van Dusen (after).

Figure 3: Intersection of Van Dusen and Olive Branch/Killbarron

Figure 4: Illustration of bulb-outs at Main and 5^th.

Figure 5: High-visibility thermo-plastic crosswalks.

Figure 6: Illustration of new Decorative Crosswalk

Figure 7: Before-and-after conditions showing concrete islands for traffic circle and new circle striping. Not to scale.

Figure 8: Relocated pedestrian ramp and new crosswalk and signage.

Figure 9: Van Dusen and Cherry. Installation of new Pedestrian Countdown Signal (PCS) and new Audible Pedestrian Signal (APS)

Figure 10: Rendering of the Intersection of Montgomery Street and Sandy Spring, with realigned decorative crosswalks and bulb-outs to reduce pedestrian crossing distance and calm vehicle traffic.

Figure 11: Rendering of the Intersection of Montgomery Street and 11th, with traffic calming center island and high-visibility crosswalk.