Bryker Woods, Pemberton Heights, and 31st Street HOA Traffic Calming Project

Survey for Draft Plan

The traffic calming working group has put together a draft plan for the entire neighborhood.  We do not want to put it up for the official vote unless we think a majority of the neighborhood believes it will benefit the neighborhood.  In that spirit, we are hand-delivering a survey containing the draft plan to every household in the project area. 

Every household should have received a copy of the survey by now.  You do not need to be a member of a neighborhood association to participate.  If you did not receive a copy of the survey, contact your area representative or download a copy for yourself using the following links:

• map of draft plan
• ballot and description of draft plan

The deadline for returning your ballot is July 17.

We ask every household to read the survey and respond, either in writing or over email, with either a "Yes, I would approve this plan as-is if it were put up for an official vote", or "No, I would not approve this plan as-is if it were put up for an official vote".  If your reply is "No", we ask that you provide as specific feedback as possible about what you dislike about the draft plan. 

It will help if you can prioritize your feedback.  With 1400 households in our project area, we do not expect everyone to approve of everything in the plan.  The question we are trying to answer is "Is this plan good enough that you would approve it" rather than "Is this plan perfect" or "Is this plan as good as it could possibly be."

After July 17, the working group will meet, review the survey results, and decide how to proceed.  If a majority supports the draft plan as-is, the working group may submit the plan to the city for an official vote.  If the neighborhood does not support the draft plan, the working group may consider alternative plans. 

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to read the survey and respond to your representative.

Public Input Strongly Encouraged

The Traffic Calming Working Group Committee greatly appreciates all neighbor, community, and public input, and strongly encourages residents of Pemberton Heights, Brykerwoods, and 31st Street HOA to communicate their concerns to the committee and directly to individual volunteer members –  in person, or by telephone, e-mail, or letter. All Traffic Calming Working Group meetings have been and will continue to be open to all persons. Additionally, the committee has allocated the first fifteen (15) minutes of each meeting for general public input and citizen communication from non-Working Group attendees. As a courtesy to other non-Working Group attendees wishing to speak, the Committee limits any individual speaker to a maximum time of three (3) minutes. Following this public input session, non-Working Group attendees are cordially welcome to listen and observe for the remainder of the meeting. Finally, at the conclusion of the formal meeting, all attendees are encouraged to openly discuss issues, concerns, and matters associated with traffic flow and their specific streets or homes in Pemberton Heights,  Brykerwoods, and 31st Street HOA.

60% vote

This question comes up a lot:

The traffic calming plan needs to pass by at least 60% in order to be approved by the neighborhood.  Is that 60% of all households in the neighborhood or 60% of those who return their ballots?

It's the latter: 60% of those who actually fill out the ballot and mail it back to the city.  For example, if there are 1000 homes in the neighborhood, and only 400 of the homes take the time to vote, the ballot will need 400 x 60% = 240 Yes votes in order to be approved.

Notes from April 8 meeting

See http://brykerwoods.typepad.com/bryker_woods_neighborhood/2008/04/traffic-calming.html for a summary of the April 8 traffic calming meeting.

Stop signs replaced to improve visibility

The stop signs at 29th and Jefferson and Northwood and Jefferson were replaced recently because of sub-par reflectivity.  The city hopes the new, shinier stop signs will be more visible at night and consequently will reduce the number of cars that fail to stop at those intersections.

No plans to close Northwood/Westover exit

Some neighbors question whether it would be more productive to lobby TxDOT to close the Northwood/Westover exit.  However, a majority of the Pemberton Heights residents are opposed to closing the exit.  Moreover, as we learned at the March 18 traffic calming meeting, TxDOT has no plans to change the exit in any significant way.  See the FAQ for details.

Additional traffic measurements

Added more traffic measurements taken in 2005 and in February 2008 to the Project Data page.

Four-way stop signs

Added a note on why we cannot use four-way stop signs as traffic calming devices.  See the FAQ page.

Neighborhood sidewalk map

Added a map of the neighborhood sidewalks and sidewalk priorities.  See the Project Data page.

All of west 29'th to be posted 25mph

Jamin Marks, one of our area representatives on 29th Street, asked the city to check why west 29th Street is still posted 30mph.  Alan Hughes, one of the City traffic engineers working on our traffic calming project, determined that the field crew overlooked parts of 29th when installing new speed limit signs.  He has asked them to post the correct speed.  Mr. Hughes also asked a technician to verify that the other roadways in the neighborhood are correctly posted.

Much thanks to Jamin Marks for raising the issue and to Alan Hughes for his speedy response.