Two temporary traffic circles will be set up on Washington Street in a test project to see if the changes will help slow down drivers through the residential neighborhood that’s a block off of Port Townsend’s main drag.
Residents on Washington Street have been raising safety concerns about traffic in their neighborhood since the start of the year, and a petition calling for improvements signed by roughly
100 people was submitted to the city council in February.
At the council’s most recent Transportation Committee meeting, Public Works Director Steve King set out the city’s plan for traffic calming along the arterial, which would see the installation of two “mini-traffic circles” on Washington Street at its intersections with Cass and Benton.
The busy roadway is used by approximately 3,400 to 3,700 vehicles a day, according to a tally done in October 2019. That review showed 85 percent of the traffic on the street was going 28 mph, faster than the posted speed limit.
King told the committee he had met repeatedly with residents along Washington Street to explore ideas for traffic calming, and the city looked at three options; medians, mini-traffic circles, and radar boards.
“The city has a great history of doing traffic calming. We have a lot of requests for more,” King told councilmembers on the committee.
While mini-traffic circles are not intended to act like a roundabout, they do force drivers to slow down, King said.
King also said the city needs to consider any potential unintended consequences of traffic calming measures that are implemented — including the prospect of pushing traffic onto other nearby streets.
“The street function must be maintained,” King said, and he noted that the city would install the mini-traffic circles for a 60-day trial period later this year.
“This will be relatively new for Port Townsend; we want to make sure they work,” he said.
The improvements are expected to cost $5,000, and residents along the street have offered to fundraise for materials for a permanent installation, with the city providing the labor needed.
“That’s not an uncommon strategy,” King said, adding that approach had been pursued by other cities that also have limited resources to spend on road improvements.
If the project is successful, it will help illustrate how other traffic calming projects could be done in other parts of Port Townsend with public/city partnerships, King said. A mini-grant program has also been suggested to help other neighborhoods pursue similar projects.
Even so, Councilmember David Faber raised the issue of equity for other neighborhoods that don’t have the financial resources that residents along Washington Street have to devote to such projects.
“I have to say that part of this entire project gives me a bad taste in my mouth because it does seem to acerbate that issue,” Faber said.
That said, Faber also noted that traffic calming efforts were worthy, and the project could pose a community-wide benefit due to the large volume of traffic that uses Washington Street.
Washington Street residents had sought the lowering of the speed limit along the street, as well, but King said changing the speed limit would require an engineering study and the approval of the city council.
“It’s not likely that that would pass an engineering study in the current road configuration,” King said.
Speed radar feedback signs also have their drawbacks, he said.
Such signs become less effective over time, King noted.
“After a while the traffic will begin to ignore the radar board unless there is a lot of enforcement that goes along with it,” King said.
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October 03, 2020 at 10:00PM
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Port Townsend looks to install traffic circles on Washington Street - Port Townsend Leader
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