Sometime soon, a ballot from the city will arrive in your mailbox, asking you to vote for or against the neighborhood’s traffic calming plan. The Bryker Woods Neighborhood Association Board urges you to vote for this plan. We need traffic calming because too many cars speed through our neighborhood. By the city’s own measurements, 12,000 cars/day traverse Northwood between Jefferson and MoPac and 8000/day traverse 29th Street at Lamar. By far most of this is cut-through traffic from MoPac. After entering the neighborhood, traffic takes 29th Street (4700 cars/day), Northwood (4000), Harris (2800), and Jefferson (7500 at Mole, 3800 at 32nd Street). Most concerning, a substantial number of those cars drive too fast. When an excessive number of cars speed through a residential neighborhood, everyone suffers. People wait for minutes to back out of their driveways. Cars parked on the street have their side-view mirrors knocked off. Neighborhood residents, dog owners, and families with children in strollers are afraid to walk on their streets. Cyclists, both children and adults, are all put at risk. Most of us live in this wonderful neighborhood because of its high quality of life. Heavy, speeding traffic makes Bryker Woods a less attractive place to live.
A great deal of careful listening and thought went into the traffic calming plan. A working group of your neighbors listened carefully to as many of you as possible about their traffic concerns in many forums. They worked diligently with the city for seven months to consider every available traffic calming option. Some options, while attractive at first glance, did not pan out, e.g. asking APD to hand out more speeding tickets; hiring offduty policemen to enforce the speed limit; installing stop signs at every intersection; installing traffic circles; closing the Mo-Pac exit; blocking off streets; and installing speed cameras. The working group was also sensitive to those who sympathize with the residents on high-traffic streets but do not want traffic diverted onto their streets and do not want an excessive quantity of traffic measures spread throughout the neighborhood. The solution selected was the modest implementation of speed cushions and NOT speed humps such as those on Jefferson. This is an extremely important distinction as drivers are MUCH more tolerant of speed cushions and thus far less likely to seek routes to avoid them. And should any unforeseen problems arise following the installation of speed cushions, the city will modify the implementation of the plan to alleviate any problems created.
The end result is a good plan, and you should approve it. The plan slows traffic on the streets that bear the brunt of the neighborhood’s volume AND the plan takes appropriate measures to avoid diverting traffic on to neighboring streets. The plan uses speed cushions in areas of greatest need and NOT speed humps like those currently on Jefferson. And most importantly - speed cushions will not impede emergency vehicles. The city’s Fire and EMS departments both have approved the plan. Your vote matters. Each residence in the neighborhood will receive exactly one ballot from the city via US mail. For the ballot to pass, 60% of those who return their ballots must vote in favor of the plan. If you don’t return your ballot, your vote will not count. If you are interested in more details including a map of the proposed plan, please see the project website at http://www.TrafficCalmingProject.org