Agenda Report
Fullerton City Council
MEETING DATE: FEBRUARY 7, 2023
TO: CITY COUNCIL / SUCCESSOR AGENCY
SUBMITTED BY: MEG McWADE, PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR
PREPARED BY: STEPHEN BISE, CITY ENGINEER
DAVID ROSEMAN, CITY TRAFFIC ENGINEER
SUBJECT: TRAFFIC SAFETY INITIATIVES UPDATE
SUMMARY
An update on new and ongoing traffic safety initiatives.
RECOMMENDATION
Receive and file.
CITY MANAGER REMARKS
Based on concerns that have been discussed over the past 6 months to 1 year regarding traffic and pedestrian safety, the City Manager requested the Public Works Department to provide traffic safety initiatives update to the City Council.
PRIORITY POLICY STATEMENT
This item matches the following Priority Policy Statements:
Public Safety
Infrastructure and City Assets.
FISCAL IMPACT
No fiscal impact generated by this item.
DISCUSSION
Background
Traffic Division staffing has completely turned over in the last two year, including replacement of our tenured on-call City Traffic Engineer consultant. The current Traffic Division will look at transportation within Fullerton with a new lens and implement safety initiatives that have multi-modal benefits.
Traffic Signal Timing Parameters
Traffic engineers use traffic signal timing to distribute right-of-way at signalized intersections. The process includes selecting appropriate values for timing to implement in specialized traffic signal controllers. Staff found it necessary to revisit certain parameters to improve safety at signalized intersections.
Red Clearance Interval: A traffic signal red clearance interval, also known as an all-red interval, is an interval at the end of the yellow change interval during which the phase has a red-signal display before the display of green for the following phase. Fullerton provides that additional time for vehicles to clear the intersection prior to a green light for opposing traffic.
Pedestrian Change Interval (Flashing Don’t Walk): The flashing Don't Walk informs pedestrians that they have sufficient time to complete crossing the street, but not enough time if they have not yet begun to cross. Some signals have a countdown indicator informing pedestrians of how much time they have to cross. Our new practice will increase the time for pedestrians to safely cross an intersection.
Minimum Green Interval for Bicycles: California required minimum bicycle timing for all phases in 2009. The City’s new practice will implement this interval at all intersections which will provide sufficient time for bicycles to clear the intersection prior to a green light for opposing movement.
Implementation of these parameters will take some time due to corridor signal coordination. However, the City has scheduled retiming some of the larger arterials in the next one to two years, including Orangethorpe Avenue, Harbor Boulevard and Euclid Street. OCTA’s new Project P will address Countywide timing, providing an opportunity to apply these new parameters to over 130 traffic signals.
These changes will increase signal cycle lengths during peak traffic times which will increase the time to traverse City limits.
Local Road Safety Plan and Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) Grants The City obtained HSIP federal funding several years ago to install over 500 pedestrian countdown heads citywide and rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFB) at 16 uncontrolled marked crosswalks. Staff has reprioritized these projects and scheduled for construction in the first quarter of 2023.
The City completed a Local Road Safety Plan (LRSP) in mid-2022. This federally-funded plan analyzed citywide systemic collisions between 2015 and 2019 and identified focus areas based on frequency and severity of collisions. Staff expedited completion of the LRSP to qualify for the HSIP Cycle 11 grant, which requires applicants to have a completed LRSP.
Staff utilized the LRSP to prepare a competitive HSIP grant for six traffic signal modifications and 1.5 miles of street lighting improvements on Orangethorpe Avenue. Award recommendations are scheduled in the first quarter of 2023.
Safe Streets & Roads for All (SS4A) Grant
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided funding for the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Program that provides grant funding on a competitive basis to support planning, infrastructure, behavioral and operational initiatives to prevent death and serious injury on roads and streets involving all roadway users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, public transportation, personal conveyance and micro-mobility users, motorists and commercial vehicle operators. Staff applied for this grant to develop a “Comprehensive Action Safety Plan,” which will expand on the completed LRSP with more community outreach and data analytics. Eligibility for implementation grants in future cycles requires development of an Action Plan. Award recommendations are scheduled in the first quarter of 2023.
Focus on Schools
The Traffic Division continuously coordinates with the Fullerton School District (FSD) regarding traffic related concerns, inquiries and improvements at, or surrounding, schools. Staff will perform a safety assessment, with support from the school and/or District, around school campuses and present recommended improvements to the Transportation and Circulation Commission for consideration. These improvements could include updated striping, stop control, parking restrictions, etc.
Traffic Engineering Division will perform a warrant study when the City receives a crossing guard request. Crossing guards are typically not warranted in areas with low pedestrian and/or vehicle volumes and the City should only consider them for elementary-aged children. Staff provides recommendations in-line with the warrant guidelines and professional engineering judgement.
SCAG GoHuman Partnership
Fullerton was the first City in Orange County to sign a Safety Pledge with Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG). Signing the Pledge gives Fullerton access to SCAG resources, recognition as a safety champion and joins SCAG’s growing safety cohort. Staff met with SCAG representatives and FSD to collaborate on a tailored traffic safety social media campaign. The campaign will address common issues with traffic safety surrounding Fullerton schools. Staff will continue to coordinate with FSD, SCAG and local partners to improve safety around Fullerton schools.
Street and Intersection Safety Lighting
Approximately half of the City’s streetlights operate on antiquated high voltage series circuits. The obsolete transformers that power these streetlights are no longer manufactured nor supported by Southern California Edison (SCE). The City has found it increasingly difficult to repair these circuits in a timely manner, resulting in neighborhoods with outages for several weeks. Staff coordinates with SCE for support but has yet determined a long-term collaborative solution. Staff has not had success in locating available funding opportunities to convert these failing systems. Staff acknowledges the public concern with this issue and the adverse effect on traffic and pedestrians and are determined to develop a feasible plan soon that will address this issue.
Staff has developed a practice to install higher wattage LED safety lighting at all signalized intersections and conditions developments to perform photometric lighting calculations fronting their businesses to determine and address lighting deficiencies.
Complete Street and Multi-modal Equity
“Complete Streets are roadways planned, designed, and implemented to enable safe and comfortable access for every type of user, and they are an essential component of creating healthy streetscapes. Constructing safe routes between all modes of transportation requires human-centered thinking. Complete Streets create safe, comfortable multimodal transportation networks by acknowledging the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, and automobile drivers of all ages and abilities. There is no standard template for Complete Streets, as they respond to environmental characteristics, community needs, and type of mobility device.” California Active Transportation Safety Information Pages, UC Berkely The Engineering Division strives to make multi-modal improvements as part of programmed capital projects. However, road rehabilitation projects are maintenance-focused and have limited funding to implement feasible complete street features. In addition, implementation of complete streets takes significant research, planning, outreach, analysis, support and funding. To implement lane reduction, enhanced bikeway, transit priority lanes, curb extensions or other complete streets features without a vetted plan is irresponsible and will likely not have community support. Staff is exploring planning grant opportunities to assess complete streets feasibility along Harbor Boulevard and Orangethorpe Avenue to eventually pursue implementation grants.
The Traffic Division does review maintenance projects to determine if complete streets features are feasible and warranted. For example, staff has programmed a section of Associated Road for infrastructure improvements between Bastanchury Road to Imperial Highway and determined it underutilized for a four-lane secondary arterial. Therefore, the City will coordinate with OCTA to potentially reclassify the roadway to provide enhanced bike facilities and on-street parking.
Fullerton PD Traffic Enforcement Update
The Fullerton Police Department Traffic Bureau partners with Traffic Engineering to maintain safety on the roads in Fullerton. The departments meet quarterly to discuss upcoming projects, plans and areas needing enforcement. This partnership will continue to grow to serve the members of the community.
The Fullerton Police Department Traffic Bureau redeployed the Motorcycle Officer Unit in August 2022, assigning three officers to the unit, primarily focusing on traffic enforcement and investigating traffic collisions. They have focused enforcement on moving violations such as speeding, red light violations and yield violations.
The Police Department filled a Parking Control Officer vacancy in January 2023 and now has two authorized staffing. The Parking Control Officers enforce parking laws and tow abandoned and illegally parked vehicles. The department has contracted with SP Plus to provide parking enforcement services for time zones in the Downtown Business District, street sweeping and the early morning parking ordinance.
The department continues to partner with the California Office of Traffic Safety with grant awards to fund focused enforcement on violations that cause traffic collisions, alcohol and drug-impaired driving and DUI checkpoints.
Attachments:
Attachment 1 – PowerPoint Presentation
cc: City Manager Eric J. Levitt
Traffic Safety Initiatives Update
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