February 17th, 2009
First Traffic Calming Committee established in City of Newark, for Country Club Drive
At Tuesday, February 17’s Traffic Committee meeting, the committee voted to create a Traffic Calming Committee to address speeding on Country Club Drive. The committee will be composed of a small number of residents and professional staff members. Stay tuned for more information as the committee investigates potential traffic calming solutions for Country Club Drive. Community opinions and idea will be sought. There will likely be a public forum as part of this process.
To get to this stage, 50% of households on Country Club Drive signed a petition in support of a traffic calming study. These petitions were sent to the Traffic Committee which voted to conduct a study.
From 5pm on February 6 until 5pm on February 13, a MetroCount Traffic Classifier was deployed on Country Club Drive just west of 112 Country Club Drive at the base of a speed limit sign.
During this time a total of 15,333 vehicles crossed the classifier, with 7,121 vehicles heading Eastbound and 8,212 vehicles heading Westbound. Peak flows were during 8am-9am, 11am-12n, and 4pm-6pm. Approximately 22% of vehicles were traveling within the speed limit of 25 mph. 44% were traveling between 25 mph and 30 mph. Approximately 25% were traveling between 30 mph and 35 mph. Approximately 8% were traveling above 35 mph. That means that 1163 cars were traveling over 10 mph over the speed limit on this residential street, which is the equivalent of one car every 4 1/3 minutes.
To proceed with a traffic calming project, an area must meet specific criteria in two of three areas: accident history, volume, and speeding. In this case, volume and speeding qualify Country Club Drive. Projects qualify under the speeding criterion if 85% of cars are not traveling within 5 mph of the speed limit. In this case, the 85th percentile speed was 33 mph, eight miles over the speed limit.
Once the new Traffic Calming Committee identifies appropriate traffic calming measures, two-thirds of households on Country Club Drive will have to petition that they want the measures implemented. The recommendations will go to the Traffic Committee who will make a recommendation to council.
Also on February 17, the Traffic Committee voted for a traffic calming study on Corbit Street. Data will be collected for the March meeting.
5 comments ↓
I’m all for traffic calming on CC Drive even though I don’t live in that neighborhood. The residents on that street deserve to feel safe on the street in front of their homes.
Thank you!
I can’t say anything against traffic quieting on a residential road. But your post suggests that Country Club Drive is actually not eligible under the speeding rule. According to the MetroCount statistics you cite, 66% of cars (22% + 44%) were traveling within 5 mph of the speed limit, which leaves “only” 34% that were not – far less than the 85% you say are required. Or did you mean to say that a project qualifies if less than 85% of cars are traveling within 5 mph of the speed limit?
Also, I suggest that instead of simply studying the best type of speed bumps to build on Country Club Drive, the Council and the Traffic Committee should consider why traffic is so heavy on this residential road. I expect that you will find equally unpleasant conditions on Corbit St. And we all know why: People are using these residential roads as shortcuts between Rt. 896 and Rt. 273 to avoid the traffic nightmare at and around the intersection of Main St. and New London Rd. Newark needs to come up with a long-term plan to improve traffic patterns around downtown that does not involve pushing through-traffic from one residential road to the next. And while you are at it, my dream is that you can also find a solution that does not involve directing all northbound traffic on Rt. 896 down Delaware Ave. and through UD’s campus, where it gets backed up endlessly due to foot-traffic between classes.
Evidently, Helga did not understand the criteria for speed. Projects qualify under the speeding criterion if 85% of cars are not traveling within 5 mph of the speed limit. In this case, the 85th percentile speed was 33 mph, eight miles over the speed limit. Certainly we(people on Country Club) do not want any residential road to be used as a cut through. It is too dangerous to anyone who is trying to raise families on these roads, whether it be Corbit or Country Club. The object should be to drive this traffic to non-residential roads that are better equipped to handle them. I have to use the Hillside-New London intersection on a regular basis, and I agree Newark needs to engineer a solution to this poorly designed traffic pattern. However, the solution should NEVER be to allow residential roads as cut throughs. Indeed, this solution would be intolerable. It should also be noted that the traffic counts on Country Club were done immediately following Newark Police doing traffic stops on Country Club, which likely slowed some of the regular speeders down. Newark does not allow speed bumps and after some research, these are very ineffective. Please visit Trafficcalming.org for information on what are the most effective traffic calming measures.
It’s a masterpiece. I have never thought people can have such ideas and thoughts. You are great.
Leave a Comment
Your name and email are required (we won't publish your email address).