11-13-2000 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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F • Installation of a traffic signal requires that at least one of twelve signal warrants, listed in the manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, be satisfied. These warrants relate to such items as minimum vehicular and pedestrian volumes, interruption of continuous traffic, and accident history. However, it must be noted that satisfaction of a signal warrant does not mandate the installation of a traffic signal as an engineering study may conclude that other measures will solve the problem. The Average Daily Traffic on Old Crystal Bay Road ranges from 4,200 v.p.d. just north of the Highway 12 intersection to 1,800 v.p.d. south of the County Road 6 intersection. The minimum vehicular volume warrant requires at least 500 vehicles per hour for eight hours per day. This equals 4,000 vehicles in eight hours. The traffic on Old Crystal Bay Road is not even close to meeting this warrant. The minimum pedestrian warrant requires that for a minimum of eight hours per day there are at least 600 vehicles per hour and 150 pedestrians per hour. The school pedestrian situation is also no where close to meeting a signal warrant. The installation of a traffic signal will require the construction of left turn lanes and left turn arrows. Without a turn lane and turn arrow, left turning vehicles will be unable to turn on a green light because of the continuous volume of oncoming traffic. This will result in gridlock as the left turning vehicles block the through traffic. The system functions with the Four-Way stop sign because the left turning vehicles are allowed an equal chance to move through the intersection. Also, as previously discussed the installation of traffic control devices not recommend by the uniform traffic control manual exposes the City to potential legal liability. Based on the fact that the school traffic situation fails to satisfy, by a wide margin, the requirements for traffic signals in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and exposes the City to potential legal liability, the staff recommendation is to not install either.a temporary or permanent traffic signal. School Start Times The issue of reinstating the previous school start times of a ‘/i difference between the high school and middle school start times could possibly be a solution. However, it is uncertain if this will allow removal of the stop sign. The most problematic traffic movement situation would still be the middle school students being brought to school by their parents. This requires two traffic movements to both enter and exit the parking lot. The high school students arriving in their own cars, only require one movement to enter the parking lot which is a lesser problem. In past years, there always was a northbound traffic backup at the middle school start time because of the left turn into the middle school parking lot. The new middle school location requires a southbound left turn into the parking lot which will result in a southbound traffic backup. Because of the closer distance to County Road 6, the middle school start time may still result in traffic backups onto the county highway. There is no guarantee that the different start times will solve the problem, and to accurately determine this without changing the start times could be difficult. Page 5 of 6