Local Area Traffic Management Policies and Procedures

What the Local Area Traffic Management Program does:

• Addresses speeding in neighborhoods
• Addresses cut-through traffic in neighborhoods
• Projects can benefit pedestrian safety, but must be caused by these two issues

What the Local Area Traffic Management Program does not do:

• Stop signs
• Crosswalks
  • Both stop signs and crosswalks require a separate warrant via the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices - TX Standards (TMUTCD)
• Speed Limit changes
• School Zone safety

Types of Measures:

• Level 1: Education and Enforcement such as radar trailers, neighborhood speed watch programs, and police enforcement. The community has these tools  in place and can deploy them swiftly as interim measures to mitigate localized issues of driver misbehavior. If improvement is not effective, then the next level of intervention should be considered.
• Level 2: Light Active Measures such as signage, pavement markings, intelligent signs, and rumble strips. These are lower cost, less intrusive measures that can raise awareness and serve as permanent, positive encouragement of behavior. If improvement is still not maintained, then the next level of intervention should be considered.
• Level 3: Physical Measures for horizontal deflection such chicanes, choker/island lane narrowing, and traffic circles and vertical deflection such as speed humps, speed tables, and raised intersections. These are more permanent physical measures that can physically modify behavior, but are more costly and resource intensive to implement. Further detail on these elements are included later in this document. If traffic improvement is still not observed, then the next level of intervention should be considered.
• Level 4: Major Reconfiguration such as diagonal diverters, half closures, median barriers, roundabouts and signals. These are significant, permanent physical measures that physically modify the underlying street design. They are the most resource intensive to implement and may require capital improvement level investment. They should not be used to impede inter-neighborhood mobility and connectivity.

So as to not employ a more costly or imposing solution without considering alternatives first, typical efforts will employ Level 1 treatments to mitigate undesired traffic speeds or excessive traffic volumes prior to consideration of Level 2 treatments, with post treatment evaluation of traffic operations. If the first two levels of treatment do not effectively mitigate the undesirable traffic behaviors, Level 3 and 4 treatments may be considered.

Process:

Application to request a study is as follows:

• Meet with City Manager or City Manager’s designee (in practice, this will be City Engineer)
  • Note: if request results in Level 2, 3 or 4 treatments, Requestor will be asked to form a design advisory committee and assist with the design details of the program and/or devices
• Application reviewed by City Engineer
• Eligibility Determination (Initial Study)
  • At least one of the following requirements must be met for consideration:
    • The measured 85th percentile vehicle speeds must exceed the posted or prima facie speed limit by 3 miles per hour or more in a 24-hour period, OR
    • The measured vehicle speeds must exceed the posted or prima facie speed limit by 5 miles per hour more than 10% of the total volume in a 24-hour period, OR
    • There are two or more reported speed related crashes within a segment during the last 24 months of available data, OR
    • The street segment must have a peak hour traffic volume in excess of 100 vehicles per hour on any day of the week, OR
    • The street segment must have a total daily traffic volume in excess of 500 vehicles per hour on any day of the week.
• City Engineer will coordinate with Public Works to determine placement of counters
  • Placement is not for a full traffic study—just to determine whether any of the eligibility conditions are present.
• City Engineer will review and make determination for eligibility

If the request is found to be eligible, Level 1: Education and Enforcement will proceed automatically. This will involve providing information on patterns to the Police department. A Community Outreach and Input Meeting will be organized by the Requestor, in coordination with City Engineer. As part of this meeting, a traffic committee will be created. The City’s responsibility at the meeting will be limited to advising on technical components and creating a project schedule.

If Level 1 and Level 2 are ineffective, then a conceptual plan will be developed for Level 3 measures. The neighborhood traffic committee will review the plan, as well as an interdepartmental review committee comprised of City staff. A follow-up community meeting will take place, and a support petition will be circulated For the petition to be considered, two-thirds of property owners on affected streets, as determined by City Engineer, must approve.

Finally, a decision on the plan is made, project costs are estimated and project is ranked. Scoring affects ultimate level of City funding.

Local Area Traffic Management Policies and Procedures

City of Buda Local Area Traffic Management Ordinance

City of Buda Local Area Traffic Management Application - City Manager Submittal

City of Buda Local Area Traffic Management Application - City Engineer Designated Agent