Title
Consider and take action on an ordinance to set a 35 MPH speed limit along Butler Road from the intersection with League City Parkway to the intersection with Turner Street, a distance of approximately 0.16 miles (Director of Engineering)
Staff requests approval on first and final reading.
Background:
Approval of this item will set a 35 MPH speed limit on Butler Road from the intersection of League City Parkway to the intersection of Turner Street. Between June 21st and June 23rd of 2021, City Staff performed a traffic study of this area of Butler Road. The existing speed limit along Butler Road within this area is 25 MPH. Examination of the study showed that northbound traffic averaged approximately 1,401 vehicles per day and southbound traffic averaged approximately 1,076 vehicles per day. The study also revealed that the 85th Percentile Speed of vehicles measured during the study had a weighted average of 33 MPH for the combined North and South bound lanes.
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 to help in 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.
Butler Road has been designated as a Collector Road within the City’s Master Mobility Plan. In Chapter 110, Section 166 of the City’s Code of Ordinances, speed limits for collector roadways are to be set at 35 MPH. Based on the traffic data from the 2021 speed study, it appears the current speed limit of 25 MPH is artificially low, and the Engineering Department is recommending a speed limit increase to 35 MPH in this area at this time.
Staff requests a first an...
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