Is there too much traffic and speeding on Lacey’s Lebanon Street? City study to find out
The city shold pursue another traffic speed and volume study on Lebanon Street before asking the neighborhood to vote on installing a permanent traffic calming device, Lacey’s public works staff recommended Tuesday.
A temporary traffic calming device with big orange barriers has been used on the street between 20th Avenue and Lacey Boulevard for some time after a Lebanon Street resident raised concerns about traffic to the City Council in 2019.
Council members Carolyn Cox, Malcolm Miller and Michael Steadman — the three council representatives on the transportation committee — heard an update on Lebanon Street Tuesday.
Staff is recommending another study of traffic on the street because a recent study may not have produced truly representative data, said Martin Hoppe, the city’s transportation manager. The earlier data showed a 25 percent drop in traffic on south Lebanon Street that couldn’t be easily explained.
Possible explanations are the pandemic — more people working from home — or traffic is being redirected, which wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing, he said.
“Let’s get a good solid count and speed study and then let the neighborhood go out and vote,” Hoppe said.
The traffic volume study requires automatic traffic counters, which are set out for about two weeks, then they examine the data for Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, to produce an average weekday volume, said city engineer Roger Schoessel.
The speed study requires radar and is done during off-peak traffic hours, which may seem counter-intuitive, but Schoessel said they do that because drivers speed when there’s less traffic on the road. During peak hours, traffic is slowed by people returning home from work and turning into their driveways, he said.
Once reliable data is collected, ballots would be mailed to property owners along Lebanon Street and a simple majority could approve a plan to install a permanent traffic calming device, Schoessel said.
If approved, the overall cost of the project could be about $200 per household, Public Works Director Scott Egger estimated. It would be paid in a lump sum, he said.
The cost to install the permanent traffic calming device is shared 50/50 with the city and residents.
Two Lebanon Street residents spoke during Tuesday’s meeting.
Randy Tompkins said his biggest concern is the volume of traffic on a street that largely has no sidewalks, and has mail boxes and garbage cans set right on it.
“It’s not a pleasant place to walk, which doesn’t make it a pleasant place to live,” he said.
Sylvia Dedrich said she likes the traffic calming device because it forces people to slow down. However, she worries that the new food truck court at Lebanon Street and Lacey Boulevard will increase traffic.
“More people are going to cut through because of the food trucks,” she said. “I think it’s going to get worse.”
This story was originally published June 2, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
