Agenda Item #14.4
For Council Meeting of: July 26, 2022
CITY OF SANTA ROSA
CITY COUNCIL
TO: MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
FROM: ROBERT SPRINKLE – DEPUTY DIRECTOR TRAFFIC ENGINEERING
TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT
SUBJECT: LOCAL ROAD SAFETY PLAN; CORRIDOR STUDY AND GRANT APPLICATION AGENDA ACTION: RESOLUTION
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended by the Transportation and Public Works Department that Council, by resolution: 1) approve the Local Road Safety Plan; 2) approve the 2021 Stony Point Road Corridor Study; and 3) authorize the Director of Transportation and Public Works to submit a Highway Safety Implementation Plan grant application for Stony Point Road enhancements.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Federal regulations require each State has a Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). An SHSP is a statewide data-driven traffic safety plan that coordinates the efforts of a wide range of organizations to reduce traffic accident fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads. In coordination with federal, state, local and private sector safety stakeholders, the SHSP establishes goals, objectives, and emphasis (or challenge) areas. The SHSP address the 4 E’s of traffic safety: Engineering, Enforcement, Education, and Emergency Services.
While the SHSP is used as a statewide approach for improving roadway safety, a Local Road Safety Plan (LRSP) can be a means for providing local and rural road owners with an opportunity to address unique highway safety needs in their jurisdictions while contributing to the success of the SHSP. The process of preparing an LRSP creates a framework to systematically identify and analyze safety problems and recommend safety improvements. The LRSP offers a proactive approach to addressing safety needs and demonstrates agency responsiveness to safety challenges.
An approved LRSP, or its equivalent, is required for jurisdictions to qualify for Highway Safety Improvement Program grant funds.
BACKGROUND
In 2020, the City of Santa Rosa was awarded a state grant from Caltrans to perform a Local Road Safety Plan (LRSP). The LRSP, or similar document, is required to be eligible to compete for Cycle 11 of the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) grant funds. The LRSP grant application included a focus analysis of collision characteristics of specific roadway corridors identified as priority projects in the City of Santa Rosa Bicycle & Pedestrian Master Plan Update 2018, March 2019 (BPMP) and an analysis of city-wide high-risk roadway characteristics (systemic analysis).
The LRSP (Exhibit A) supplements the BPMP by focusing on collisions along BPMP identified priority corridors and providing supplemental citywide analysis of bicycle and pedestrian involved collisions with more recent available data to identify any collision trends. The LRSP also evaluated collision trends along roadways identified as part of High-Injury Network (HIN) in the BPMP using more recent bicycle and pedestrian related collision data.
The BPMP also recommends that the City consider whether adoption of a Vision Zero Policy is an appropriate step to increase the City’s existing commitment for all users of its diverse transportation system. The Sonoma County Transportation Authority (SCTA), the Department of Health Services, and representatives from local jurisdictions (including Santa Rosa), non-profit organizations, community members, and public health and safety agencies formed the Vision Zero Advisory Committee to facilitate progress toward a countywide Vision Zero Action Plan to achieve a target goal of zero traffic deaths and severe injuries on roadways in the county by 2030.
The SCTA Board of Directors adopted the Vision Zero Action Plan at their March 14, 2022, meeting. Participating agencies are also asked to consider adopting the Vision Zero Action Plan. The Countywide Vision Zero Action Plan is scheduled for City Council consideration on July 26, 2022.
The LRSP aims to meet goals set forth in the BPMP of increasing access and comfort for bicycle and pedestrian facilities for people of all ages and abilities by identifying safety countermeasures to help mitigate primary crash type trends and reducing the overall collision severity.
The LRSP is a collaborative process with local leadership groups that represents the 5 E’s (not just engineering) and public outreach. The 5 E’s of traffic safety include Engineering, Enforcement, Education, Emergency Services, and Emerging Technologies. The LRSP adds in Emerging Technologies which is absent from the SHSP guidelines. Examples of Emerging Technologies include Intelligent Transportation Systems, improved bicycle detection, upgraded traffic signal controllers, enhanced communication and data collection, and changeable message signs.
PRIOR CITY COUNCIL REVIEW
On November 9, 2021, Council, by resolution, approved the Master Agreement, Administering Agency-State Agreement for State-Funded Projects.
On March 12, 2019, the Council, by Resolution No. 2019-027 adopted the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan Update 2018 (BPMPU2018) and approved the General Plan which included language that the City consider a policy related to Vision Zero.
ANALYSIS
In following the overall LRSP process, Stakeholder Working Groups (Working Groups) were formed with the City as the lead and local organizations from the 5 E’s and those with an interest in improving the City’s roadway safety. Since the BPMP already identified the focus corridors for the LRSP, multiple Working Groups were formed focusing on each study corridor. The groups gathered for meetings to discuss the overall collision analysis, goals, priorities, safety recommendations, and overall development of the safety plan. The vision, mission statement, and goals of the LRSP is consistent with that of the BPMP.
Based on the BPMP list of priority projects, this LRSP focused on the following corridors in the City of Santa Rosa:
Fourth Street from E Street to Farmers Lane
Montgomery Drive from Alderbrook Drive to Hahman Drive
West College Avenue from Kowell Lane to Morgan Street
College Avenue from Morgan Street to Fourth Street
Stony Point Road from West Third Street to Sebastopol Road Roseland Creek Trail from Stony Point Road to Burbank Avenue North Dutton Avenue from West College Avenue to West Third Street Cleveland Avenue from Industrial Drive to Guerneville Road Collision data, field observations, stakeholder and public input, and traffic volumes were gathered for these corridors. Using this information, along with City, Working Group and Community feedback, countermeasures were recommended for each of the corridors.
The Stony Point Road corridor, between West Third Street and Sebastopol Road, was the first segment reviewed. Stony Point Road was identified by the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board as the top priority corridor and funds were budgeted for this study in 2019. W-Trans, a traffic engineering consultant, worked with the City and held two community meetings to hear input from the public and develop countermeasure to address concerns and reported collisions. A plan was developed to provide protected bike lanes along the segment and intersection modifications including bulbouts and Rapid Rectangular Flashing Beacons (RRFBs) to increase pedestrian visibility. Additionally, reconfiguring the intersection at the Joe Rodota Trail/Highway 12 Eastbound ramp to eliminate the two-stage crossing was recommended. These proposed modifications are the basis for the improvements being identified in the Highway Safety Improvement Plan grant application. The entire report from W-Trans was completed in August 2019 and is an attachment (Exhibit B) to this report item.
Community meetings were held to discuss other corridors listed above. Separate meetings to discuss: Roseland Creek Trail, North Dutton Avenue and Fourth Street/Montgomery Drive engaged the community where their input helped focus countermeasures to address concerns raised. The City continues to plan for funding to help install these countermeasures.
The City has applied for an Active Transportation Program Quick Build grant to implement modifications to test on North Dutton Avenue. The Quick Build grant is used to install temporary measures that can then be modified to permanent changes once tested and accepted by the community. We plan to finalize this plan upon notification of grant funding, however, feedback from the community supports the addition of protected bike lane facilities where possible in conjunction with improving pedestrian connectivity. The basic concept for North Dutton between West Third Street and West College Avenue is reduce the lanes from a 4-lane facility to a 2-lane facility with a center turn lane and bike lanes. The volumes here support the lane reduction and parking will be maintained where it currently exists. The lane reduction will aid in pedestrian crossings, help reduce speeds and provide for protected bike lanes in many portions of this segment.
Montgomery Drive and Fourth Street are two sections of roadway that will receive a high-volume slurry seal in the summer of 2023. This will give the City an opportunity to redesign the striping on those roadways as the slurry provides a blank canvas.
The community raised concerns on Fourth Street that speeds seemed high and that there were no bicycle facilities. Additionally, there was concern regarding the proximity of the traffic being directly adjacent to the sidewalk on near Alderbrook Drive. The City is developing a plan to provide bicycle lanes between Bryden Lane and E Street in conjunction with reducing the 4-lane street to 2 lanes with a center turn lane. The configuration will help reduce speeds, maintain the existing parking along the majority of the segment and provide the needed buffer between the travel lanes. Parking modifications between E Street and Brookwood are required to provide for the desired bike lanes. In this segment, the south side of Fourth Street would change the current diagonal parking back to the original parallel parking on that segment. Additionally, the City is looking at lower stress routes for bicyclist through the Proctor Terrace neighbourhood to connect the proposed bike lane at Bryden over to the Farmers Lane shopping center.
The section of Montgomery Drive between Alderbrook Drive and Hahman Drive also presents a gap in bicycle facilities. This section of roadway is primarily residential west of Farmers Lane and is currently constructed with parking on both sides of the street, a center turn lane, and a single travel lane in each direction. Following the slurry, the City is working on a design to implement bicycle lanes while removing the center turn lane. Designs are underway to attempt to retain left turn lanes at Shortt and Sherbrook which are two primary entries to the surrounding neighbourhood.
College Avenue was also reviewed and discussed with the stakeholder group. The consensus here was to develop and sign and lower stress bicycle route that paralleled College Avenue. It was discussed that if there were bike lanes added on College Avenue, due to the high traffic volumes, there would likely be little use and it was thought that it would be more advantageous to provide a parallel route through the neighbourhood, on Benton Street, to attract users of all skill levels.
Cleveland Avenue, between Industrial Drive and Guerneville Road, is another segment that would benefit for lane reductions and the addition of bicycle lanes. Volumes on this segment support the lane reduction and by installing a buffered bike lane here, there will be a larger separation between vehicles and the sidewalk which is currently contiguous to the travel lane. This will provide for an improved pedestrian experience and will include bike facilities where they currently do not exit.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact to the General Fund. A match for the HSIP grant will be calculated dependent on the countermeasures proposed and gas tax funding will be programed for the match programmed in the 2023/24 budget cycle.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
This action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it is not a project which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15378.
BOARD/COMMISSION/COMMITTEE REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board has provided input on each corridor plan improvements and staff has considered and incorporated that input into the proposed designs where possible.
NOTIFICATION
Not Applicable.
ATTACHMENTS
Resolution / Exhibit A - Local Road Safety Plan, GHD / Exhibit B - 2021 Stony Point Road Corridor Study
CONTACT
Robert Sprinkle, Deputy Director Traffic Engineering, [email protected] 707.543.3817
LOCAL ROADWAY SAFETY PLAN
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