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HomeMy WebLinkAbout22 - Post Installation Review of Mariners Neighborhood Traffic Calming Measures - CorrespondenceReceived after Agenda Printed November 15, 2022 Item No. 22 From: Lisa Acklev To: City Clerk"s Office Cc: Lisa Acklev Subject: Public Comment for 11/15/2022 Meeting, Agenda Item 22 - Mariners Traffic Calming Measures Date: November 14, 2022 11:49:53 AM Attachments: Highland Residents" Reauest For Speed Cushion Removal 2022.Ddf Hiohland Drive Speed Cushions Near Mariners Dr.mi4 Harbor View Speed Cushions for Comoarison.mD4 [EXTERNAL EMAIL] DO NOT CLICK links or attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Hello, Attached is the joint comment of 12 Highland Drive residents related to Item 22 on the November 15, 2022, City Council Meeting Agenda. Also attached are 2 videos for your review and which we would like to show at the meeting. Will you please do us the favor of confirming receipt of this email and that you are able to open and view the 2 attached videos? That would be so very helpful. Thank you very much! Best regards, Lisa 949-633-4427 REQUEST FOR REMOVAL OF SPEED MATS AT 1911/1912 HIGHLAND DR. We all want a safe neighborhood and to slow the traffic on Highland Drive. Unfortunately, the speed mats placed at 1911/1912 Highland are not as effective as we had hoped. They are noisy and disruptive due to their hard rubber edge that produces a Ioud thud sound when hit by tires at almost any speed. Commercial vehicles cause other noise issues. Residents hear the noise in their homes and backyards. Most homes on Highland are older with uninsulated walls and have bedrooms that face the street. The mats are located right in front of 1911 and 1912. You have to walk over them if you want to park in front of the homes, making them a potential trip hazard when exiting and/or entering a vehicle. We see and hear vehicles fly over the mats all the time. Their flat top and low profile does not force a slowdown, unlike the rounded asphalt cushions on Harbor View Dr. None of us were asked for input before the mats were installed at this location, despite the change in location from the original plan submitted with the petition. We request removal of these speed mats and remain hopeful for other solutions to the traffic issues. ADDRESS NAME SIGNATURE r -3 h )tell cept, 61 ©( Deo i 5 -r-- K, s ,o , V�IJ( -P cJ(j / 833 Dr A y �e-A�vl Ck �l Dr, y i c4A Ca l taha v i D ' • Y (? t a 64va/vil Y, Received after Agenda Printed November 15 ,2022 Item No. 22 From: City Clerk"s Office To: Mulvey, Jennifer; Rieff. Kim Subject: FW: Comment for Agenda Item 22 - Request for Removal of Highland Drive Speed Cushion/Mariners Traffic Calming Measures Date: November 14, 2022 12:48:14 PM Attachments: Brine Clip Flexibility to remove.mp Brine Work With Residents Clip.mp44 Asphalt Cushions Third Town Hall.pdf From: Lisa Ackley <ackleylisa@outlook.com> Sent: Monday, November 14, 2022 12:47:32 PM (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) To: City Clerk's Office <CityClerk@newportbeachca.gov>; Dept - City Council <CityCouncil@newportbeachca.gov> Cc: Lisa Ackley <ackleylisa@outlook.com> Subject: Comment for Agenda Item 22 - Request for Removal of Highland Drive Speed Cushion/Mariners Traffic Calming Measures [EXTERNAL EMAIL] DO NOT CLICK links or attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Dear Council Members, I am writing to request your support in removing the rubber speed cushions/mats located at 1911/1912 Highland Drive. In addition to voicing my concern to a city representative before the cushions were installed, I communicated with the city about these issues in late 2021, both via email and in a phone conversation with Adrian Rodriquez. We finally had a meeting with Mr. Brine and Mr. Houlihan November 2, 2022. Seven homes were represented at the meeting, all requesting removal of this set of speed cushions. We are hopeful that you will vote to remove these cushions, just as the set of cushions were relocated on Dover Drive due to a resident's noise related complaints. A group of neighbors (12 homes ) submitted a joint comment in advance of the November 15, 2022, meeting, and a video of what it is like living with the speed cushions. A comparison video of the asphalt Harbor View speed cushions was also submitted. The videos are very enlightening. We want traffic to slow down and appreciate the city's efforts. However, the rubber cushions are very noisy creating a loud "thud thud" sound that can be heard throughout our old, uninsulated houses and even in the backyard. The hard rubber edge of the cushions creates a noise when the tires strike the edge. The faster the car, the louder the noise. The noise will likely get worse as the rubber ages and hardens. The cushions can be driven over at almost any speed since they are low and have a flat top. Many cars have figured out the faster you drive over the cushions, the smoother the ride. The cushions are clearly not meant for a residential neighborhood and should be in an industrial setting where noise does not matter. At our recent meeting with Mr. Brine and Mr. Houlihan, we also discussed how difficult having the cushions right in front of both houses is. The cushions are at the primary parking spot so unless you get out of your car and then walk in the opposite direction from our houses, and come back down the sidewalk, you have to walk over the cushions or park somewhere else. One of our concerns is our 80+ year old parents who visit frequently. Before the cushions were placed, but after the outline was drawn for them on the street, I voiced my concern to the city that the cushions were a potential trip hazard. I pointed out that the original location for the cushions on the plan circulated with the petition was several houses away, under a streetlight and at the property line, not right in front of the houses where everyone parks. I believe I had this conversation with Adrian Rodriquez on the day the project door hangers were placed. The person I spoke with happened to be right in front of our house and about to enter a city vehicle. The cushions were installed over this objection. The January 12, 2021, Council Meeting Study Session video is on point. Noteworthy, at timestamp 1:17, Mr. Brine talks about the flexibility of the rubber mats, including how they can pick them up and move them if a resident does not want them due to noise. At time stamp 1:23:10 — 1:23:30, Mr. Brine describes the importance of ensuring residents are comfortable with the mats in front of their houses. (See attached video clips.) These cushions were originally to be located closer to the stop sign at Mariners Drive, near the property lines and next to a streetlight. Despite Mr. Brine's comments at the Study Session indicating the importance of residents being comfortable with the speed cushion locations, no one contacted any of the homes directly impacted by the change in the cushion location to in front of our houses. We signed the petition based on a totally different set of facts. The plan for the Highland Drive speed cushions was prepared by a traffic engineer and part of a traffic study. We were reasonable in our expectation that the speed cushions would be installed as indicated on the plan circulated with the petition. We were not given the same opportunity to withhold consent to the calming measures as residents presented with the petition and original plan showing a different location for the cushions. Nor did we have any indication before signing the petition that the cushions would be rubber instead of asphalt. (See Third Town Hall PowerPoint indicating asphalt cushions would be used, pp. 6 and 9.) Further, we could not foresee the cushions being placed right where everyone parks in front of the two houses, in an unlit location and contrary to generally accepted traffic calming standards for placement of speed cushions. (See DOT/ITE standards which also call for more cushions and cushions placed closer to stop signs/signals.) We feel the city should have contacted us before they changed the location of the cushions to in front of our houses. Please consider the fact that so many residents near these speed cushions are requesting their removal and please vote to have them removed. These cushions are nothing like the cushions on Harbor View. The Harbor View cushions are considerably quieter, they force a slow because of their round design, and there are 5 cushions, with 15 MPH signs in the same distance of roadway that we have 2 cushions with 25 MPH placed signs right next to the cushions. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Lisa Ackley (1911 Highland Drive) s. Speed Cushions (Asphalt) Vertical traffic calming device that consists of raised "humps" or `lumps" that are placed across the roadway laterally. There are gaps for wheels to pass between the raised areas. Passengervehicles need to reduce speeds, whereas emergency vehicles (fire trucks, ambulance, etc.) can traverse the cushion without reducing speed. Traffic Calming Features Z. Roadway Striping Provides a visual impression that the roadway width has been reduced, which has been shown to reduce vehicle speeds. Existing Speed; �. Cushion Tustin Avenue,, 1 (Vote: Future Speed Cushions will be constructed with asphalt as opposed to ' rubber, to use the available # budget in a cost-effective >� ! manner. I� f SEP TEMBER 2019 TOWN HALL MEETING INDICATED ASPHALT SPEED CUSHIONS Received after Agenda Printed November 15, 2022 Item No. 22 Hello. My name is Laurie Lane and I live at 1906 Highland Dr, next door to the speed mat in question. My husband Dave and I have lived happily in our home for 30 years as of next month. We bought it with the full knowledge of the street traffic on Highland —that it is a main entry way into the neighborhood. Speed on Highland has always been an issue and a nuisance. We've been attentive to the sporadic discussions about speed calming measures over the years and were always grateful for the city's attention to our concerns. When in 2020 a neighbor brought around the petition reopening the topic, of course we signed. Why would we want to be an impediment to the city's assistance in making some improvements? We reviewed the map of the proposed speed mat locations and were frankly relieved that they were not to be placed in front of our house or very near .... and I wondered if the neighbors who were directly impacted had a specific say in the installation. We felt like the joke was on us when we came home from a few days away to find the speed mats installed 65 feet away from our master bedroom. Please know that none of us are noise wimps! We live under the flight path! We also have lived through the ever-increasing construction traffic due to all the remodels being done in the neighborhood. But the sound from these speed mats is unlike anything else we have experienced. It is non-stop, round the clock - there is no curfew like the one at John Wayne — this sound is unpredictable and jarring. We aren't home all day as some of our neighbors are, but we experience the worst of it when it is quiet at night or early in the morning when there are no planes to drown out the noise. Tires hitting that mat wake us up or keep us awake many nights. We have lived with it now for over a year and are frankly miserable. I reread the original report and saw that the purpose of the speed calming study was to address "quality of life issues". This "solution" has definitely impacted our quality of life .... and not for the better. Does it slow traffic? Well, the follow up traffic study taken in October of 2021(about 4 months after installation) indicated that there was an improvement in the average speed. We do observe that many drivers slow down before or at the bump, but then speed back up as if to make up for lost time. I suspect some who drive slow would do so even without the bump ... at least I would hope so. But there are still plenty of drivers who fly over it so fast it makes our jaws drop. Perhaps because there is such a great distance between the next speed mat or stop sign, drivers leave the mat and accelerate way back up. So we get the noise coming and going. If the speed mats were successful in consistently slowing the traffic, I would be so grateful and would be more willing to persevere with the mats .... but the speed problem is not solved and the noise, the trip hazard and the visual clutter from the signs, the writing in the street and the mats are oppressive. When we neighbors expressed our frustration with the mats to the city, Tony and James kindly came out to discuss the situation. At that meeting we were told that moving the mats would require approval by the neighbors at the new location. But we were never asked for approval when they were originally placed ... so that is inconsistent. The implication was that our signature on the petition was our approval. However, as mentioned before, the map included with the petition showed the mats at a different location than where they were installed. We are told now that the map was "conceptual" but we didn't understand that at the time. Also, in the January 2021 council's discussion about the installation of these particular rubber mats, there was specific conversation about the fact that they would be easy to remove if neighbors were unhappy. I am so grateful for the consideration of the council members during that discussion and for asking those questions about an "escape route" from these particular mats. Because as you can tell, we are very unhappy and would appreciate your agreeing to remove them from this location. We are open to alternatives, such as the asphalt bumps like the ones on Harbor View Dr, which are night and day in comparison with regard to the noise they create or the 15 mile / hour speed sign posted on Harbor View. We are reasonable people .... we just can't take these speed mats any longer. Thank you for your compassion and your consideration.