City of West Lake Hills staffers and residents are reaching out to citizens to gauge what kind of traffic-calming measures they would like to see on Redbud Trail.
Following a request by citizens in March, West Lake Hills City Council formed a subcommittee to study traffic patterns on the roadway and conducted a traffic study in March. This study showed that 78 percent of vehicles tracked in an 11-day period were speeding on Redbud Trail.
Council member Darin Walker said the study tracked 9,649 vehicles—approximately 1,136 per weekday and 517 over the weekend—at two locations on Redbud Trail, with some vehicles exceeding 60 miles per hour.
Council member Jim O’Connor said 78 percent, or 7,526 vehicles, exceeded the posted 25 miles per hour speed limit. About 5 percent of the traffic, or 572 vehicles, exceeded 35 miles per hour, he said.
Subcommittee member Mieko Akutsu, who lives on Redbud Trail, said the study showed 97 vehicles driving between 45 and 84 miles per hour.
“At those speeds, it only takes one accident to seriously injure or maim somebody, or actually kill them,” she said at the July 14 meeting of the West Lake Hills City Council.
Subcommittee members plan to go door-to-door to alert area residents of the citizen survey which questions their level of concern for the volume and speed of traffic on the road, whether citizens are interested in traffic-calming measures and what kind of measures should be taken, she said.
The survey will also be available online and distributed through email, Walker said. He said he plans to open the survey for two weeks before gathering responses and sharing results at the Aug. 10 City Council meeting.
Walker also drafted suggested guidelines and procedures for requesting traffic-calming measures. He said residents of several neighborhoods—including
North Peak Road and Westlake Drive —have approached City Council in the last few years requesting the speed limit be changed. The draft provides a suggested list of procedures, including identifying the traffic problem to approaching City Council, forming a traffic study and initiating a citizen survey.
“We just thought it was good to try to make the process uniform,” Mayor Linda Anthony said.