Highland Village City Council on June 13 stopped short of having new stop signs erected in a city neighborhood.
But that doesn’t mean studying the stop sign and traffic control issues is over.
What happened
Adding stop signs on Lakeside Drive and Hillside Drive at their intersections with Lake Breeze was discussed during a council workshop about an ordinance to be considered during the regular session. During the regular session, council voted against the item 5-2 with Council Members Brian Fiorenza and Kevin Cox supporting the measure that would have added two signs. Because this was an ordinance, it requires two reads for approval. But if an ordinance fails on the first read, it will not be considered for the second read, said Laurie Mullens, marketing and communications director for the city, in an email.
During the workshop, council discussed options for traffic control on Lakeside Drive, Hillside Drive and Lake Breeze. Public Works Director Scott Kriston said six traffic counts were performed over six days on Lakeside and Hillside drives at Highland Shores Boulevard. The counts determined how often drivers exceed speed limits, with a 30 mph limit posted. Total number of vehicles and average speed limits were given during Kriston’s presentation.
Traffic counts were conducted at Lakeside Drive and Lake Heights as well as Hillside at Lake Haven.
The details
Kriston explained the city has a code that spells out sign disposition, and the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices is the standard for the placement of signage and traffic standards for placement in corporate limits. The manual has criteria for multiway stop sign installation, which includes, among other regulations, controlling the direction that has obscured vision or topography as well as minimum volumes of vehicles per hour in day—in this case, 300 vehicles per hour for any eight hours of an average day. There also were crash stats to take into account—five or more crashes in a 12-month period.
Kriston also discussed site distance design standards, which, when examining intersection site distance, are defined as the distance a motorist can see the approaching vehicles before their line of sight is blocked by an obstruction near the intersection. For a 30-mph intersection, the site distance is 335 feet, which is the standard for intersections. There is also 200 feet of stopping site distance, according to the presentation.
A closer look
Traffic-calming options that council saw were:
- Installing a 6-foot pedestrian lane—striping and signage only—along the outer lane along Lakeside Drive/Hillside Drive from Highland Shores Boulevard
- Adding four to six speed limit signs
- Adding speed bumps after polling neighbors
- Adding up to four traffic-calming islands
- Installing a roundabout at Lakeside and Lake Breeze
Highland Village police Chief Doug Reim and Mullens also spoke during the presentation with Mullens discussing a survey delivered or emailed to homes about a change from a two-way stop to a four-way stop at the intersection of Lakeside Drive/Hillside Drive at Lake Breeze. The change would be made for traffic safety reasons.
Mullens said the city received 29 responses from 48 properties with 33% of people in favor, 27% not in favor and 40% not responding.
The backstory
Earlier this year, a car hit a resident’s family dog in the vicinity of the intersection of Lakeside Drive/Hillside Drive and Lake Breeze. After the incident, the family asked council to address speed limits throughout the city, according to a council agenda memo.
Reim met with a resident who lives on Lake Breeze near its intersection with Lakeside Drive/Hillside Drive regarding safety at that intersection, the agenda stated. Not only are there “blind spots” in the approaches to the intersection because of the topography of the area, the agenda stated, but vehicles turning onto either side of Lake Breeze have been seen cutting the corners at the intersection in such a manner that the safety of anybody walking in the roadway—there are no sidewalks—is jeopardized at that intersection.
After examining data regarding average speeds and other data for Lakeside Drive/Hillside Drive as well as other streets near this location, town officials said there does not appear to be a speeding problem in the city or in the immediate vicinity of the intersection of Lakeside Drive/Hillside Drive and Lake Breeze.
“However, there were observed, and more than likely will always be, a handful of drivers who exceed the speed limit,” the agenda stated. “Alternate solutions were examined and have been discussed to help make the intersection at Lakeside Drive/Hillside Drive and Lake Breeze safer. A four-way stop was discussed as a possible solution.”
Quote of note
Council Member Robert Fiester told council during the late work session in the regular meeting that he supports the staff exploring a “more holistic view” within the community on stop signs, traffic-calming approaches and other ways to solve larger problems rather than “piecemealing stop signs here and there.”
