Title
Consider and take action on an Ordinance to set a 20 MPH speed limit along Park Avenue from the intersection with Main Street to the intersection with 3rd Street, a distance of approximately 0.14 miles (Director of Engineering)
Staff recommends approval on first and final reading.
Background:
Approval of this item will set a 20 MPH speed limit on Park Avenue from the intersection of Main Street to the intersection of 3rd Street. Between November 9th and November 17th of 2020, City Staff performed a traffic study of this area of Park Avenue. The existing speed limit along Park Avenue within this area is 5 MPH. Examination of the study showed that northbound traffic averaged approximately 245 vehicles per day and southbound traffic averaged approximately 137 vehicles per day. The study also revealed that the 85th Percentile Speed of vehicles measured during the study was 21 MPH northbound and 19 MPH southbound.
The 85th Percentile speed means the speed at or below which 85% of all vehicles are observed to travel under free-flowing conditions. This is one of the standards used by Traffic and Transportation Engineers to set speed limits at a safe speed, minimizing crashes and promoting uniform traffic flow along a given traffic corridor. Some of the other standards used to set speed limits are (1) lane and shoulder configurations/widths, (2) presence of vertical/horizontal curves, (3) sight distances, and (4) surrounding developments.
Park Avenue has been designated as a Local Road within the City’s Master Mobility Plan. In Chapter 110, Section 166 of the City’s Code of Ordinances, speed limits for non-residential local streets are to be set at 30 MPH. The Engineering Department was unable to find an ordinance or traffic data used that set the speed limit in this area of Park Ave and assumes the speed limit of 5 MPH was established due to the narrow travel lanes and the proximity to League Park. Based on the traffic data from the 2020 speed study, it app...
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