West Lake Hills City Council approved a traffic-calming plan for North Peak Road at Wednesday's council meeting, and is currently seeking bids for the project.
“Initially I was a little surprised when this request came in because it never occurred to me to cut through North Peak,” said Council Member Brian Plunkett, who sat on the North Peak Traffic Calming Committee. “I was wondering why this has become an issue. What has changed is [that] Waze and Google Maps have really changed the notion of cutting through. Waze helps [drivers] get home from Bee Caves Road through West Lake Hills.”
Waze and Google Maps are navigation applications that route drivers to their desired destinations.
Plunkett said the traffic calming committee plan includes:
- adding two speed cushions on North Peak Road, with striping leading up to the cushions to make them more visible;
- moving the stop sign at Rollingwood Drive and North Peak Road closer to the intersection, which would slow traffic turning onto North Peak Road; and
- restriping North Peak Road to narrower lanes.
“We are trying to remedy the issue of people in rush hour speeding,” he said. “We don’t really have a solution for cutting down the volume of traffic on any of our streets, but presumably we can effect the speed.”
Mayor Linda Anthony said the $18,400 project fits within the city’s $100,000 traffic calming budget for this fiscal year.
City Administrator Robert Wood said he expects the city to receive bids by the second week of January and the project to begin sometime in February.
