Traffic Calming efforts update

Hello everyone!

I wanted to give you all an update on the traffic calming efforts that have taken place by the city as well as an update on some efforts still ongoing.

I first want to acknowledge the efforts and support by the city thus far, especially our City Council representative Travis Lindley. Travis stepped in day one to determine the needs of the neighborhood and organized a meeting with the city that actually occurred even before he was officially sworn in. This meeting prompted the finalization of the DO NOT BLOCK signage and striping at the Roswell St/Spring St/RR intersection that has been fairly effective at keeping that intersection clear of motorists hanging around in the middle of that intersection. Just recently several yellow doweled poles were installed on Spring St to lessen the chance for motorists to pull into oncoming traffic attempting to eliminate their wait at the stop sign/traffic light. I personally don’t think there will ever be a quote - solution, for this intersection but I know these calming efforts along with Smyrna police actively ticketing in this area are doing a lot of calming and it’s very appreciated.

On January 24th, 2020 I met with Travis and Kevin Moore (Dir of Engineering, City Engineer) at City Hall to discuss the results from the traffic calming survey many of you provided exceptional feedback for. This went a very long way in validating the concerns of the neighborhood. Thank you! In this meeting we discussed several things for which I will go into more detail below. Most items were very positively received by the City with acknowledgement of need and willingness for action. Happy to report that some of this action occurred almost immediately. A few of the items were a bit more complex and will need some time to maneuver through the City for reasons of budgeting, traffic calming vs traffic enforcement requirements and meeting the current guidelines within the City’s official Traffic Calming policy. The biggest takeaway from this meeting to me was the opinion to rewrite the current Traffic Calming policy to allow for improved calming efforts and efficiency for approval. This was presented to City Council some time later and was approved for revision. I look forward to seeing the final revision for which I’m hopeful will allow the great majority of our concerns to receive attention.

Bullet points of what was addressed and details for each are listed below.

General Speeding & Thru Traffic

There’s of course instances of motorists driving at excessive speeds throughout every street in our neighborhood. The perimeter streets however seem to produce the great majority of speeders and this was the main concern. Specifically Mathews St, Roswell St (both ends) and Spring St received the most discussion.

Mathew’s St (#2 complaint from survey)

• Requested Stop Sign(s) be placed at (1) Walker and (1) Springleaf, or, (1) Whitfield

  • Ironically, a stop sign is not considered to be a traffic calming remedy for excessive speeding by the current policy

  • Enforcement is rather the solution

• The City has placed a digital Your speed sign on Mathews near Whitfield St

  • This produces a subtle reminder to slow down and is also collecting information to validate the need for future efforts

• Hopeful that the new Traffic Calming policy will allow for stop signs to be considered as a traffic calming mechanism

Roswell St - nearest pergola (#1 complaint from survey)

• City is proposing a traffic calming/beautification project

  • Small concrete raised median from intersection to Gilbert st with openings for driveways to enter/exit along with signage and choker mechanism further up Roswell St (close to Davis’ home)

  • Not officially approved - more info to come. I’ll update as new info becomes available

Roswell St - nearest roundabout

• Requested Stop Signs

• Waiting on new Traffic Calming policy

Spring St

• Speeding

  • City’s response is it’s currently a need for enforcement rather than calming in regard to speeders

• Thru Traffic

  • The City will not deter motorists from utilizing public roads irregardless if they’re within a neighborhood or not

  • Discussion to close the Spring rd “on ramp” to Spring St was discussed but no request or action occurred.

    • Likely to be a long term initiative to determine if closing this portion is a widely popular opinion for WPN, The City and businesses along this stretch

    • More info to come. Comments welcomed by email to williamsparkneighbors@gmail.com

Safety and/or Nuisance concerns

Hawthorne St - Atlanta Rd (#3 complaint from survey)

The general concern expressed was the pedestrian safety at this intersection as well as functionality of the intersection for motorist

• Pedestrian Safety

  • Requested a total rework of the intersection allowing for pedestrians to more safely maneuver through and utilize a crosswalk

    • The RR track and adjacent road running parallel to the RR track create a complicated scenario to safely maneuver pedestrians through this intersection

    • The City has agreed to research in more detail and provide remedy at a later date

• Motorist

  • Requested a stop sign to be placed at Dixie/Hawthorne where a balk line was already present

    • The City installed shortly thereafter

    • No plans to widen or re work the intersection for more efficient traffic flow are currently in the works

Anderson Cir

• The City’s official opinion as I understood it is that they will not get involved specifically with Charter to slow their trucks down. They suggest that it’s a private matter and for the neighbors impacted in that area approach Charter to discuss concern.

• No plans for traffic calming around Anderson Cir or Durham Park are planned

• My personal suggestion would be to take the advice of the City and/or reach out to Travis Lindley to reinforce the opinion and desire for action in this area

All in all I’m very satisfied with what has come from the City thus far to address our concerns. Further commitment to address outstanding and future issues has also been accepted positively. I ask for your continued patience and calm demeanor toward the City. We are seeing progress, albeit slower than what we may like but we need to understand how these things take time.

Please feel free to reach me by email at williamsparkneighbors@gmail.com should you have further comment or suggestion.

Kindest regards,

Rob Allen - WPN President