Vote postponed on removing three Oxmoor Road traffic signals
The Homewood City Council decided it had more to review before it would vote on the removal of three signals on Oxmoor Road.
During its regular meeting on April 14, the Council considered the results of the Oxmoor Road Corridor Study, which concluded that the area between Broadway Street and Central Avenue is the most congested portion of the corridor. In addition, the operating systems for the signals are in need of significant updates.
“Oxmoor Road signal system is currently not coordinated and is running outdated timings and phasing plans,” the study reads. “This contributes significantly to congestion and undue delay at the study intersections.”
The study was prepared by Skipper Consulting Inc., which recommended in an effort to improve traffic flow that signals on Oxmoor Road at Edgeview Avenue/Havenwood Court, St. Charles Street and E. Hawthorne/Seminole Drive be removed. Cost of removing each signal is estimated at $7,000.
After debating the issue in committee on April 7, members appeared ready to vote during the April 14 meeting until Mayor Scott McBrayer urged them to wait.
“For me, it is a public safety issue in the fact that it is very congested area,” McBrayer said. “I’d like to hear what the businesses and churches have to say about the lights there. Sometimes — and it may be contrary to what we think most of time — moving traffic rapidly through that area may not be the best alternative for us.”
McBrayer suggested that the City either put bags over the signals or turn them off for a period to determine the impact. Council members indicated this was an option they had not considered, but they also felt that maximizing Skipper Consulting’s recommendations was reliant on the removal of specific signals.
“What I understand from the developer is if you deactivate the lights, the most likely result be chaos because the other recommendations are not in place to improve the overall flow,” Council Member Britt Thames said.
However, Thames also said he believed Skipper could develop a successful plan as long as its engineers had a definite answer on which signals would be removed.
Skipper recommended removing the signals after studying traffic on the road during peak hours. The firm believes traffic counts were low enough on the side streets that drivers would have no trouble finding gaps in traffic without assistance from the lights.
“For the signals that are there, we found the traffic volumes during peak don’t meet the minimum criteria,” Clark Bailey of Skipper Consulting said. “It’s kind of the first red flag.”
The study also concluded that the signals at Broadway Street and Evergreen Avenue need to be operated independently. Currently, the two lights are timed together. Other recommendations in the study include upgrading signals on Oxmoor Road to include emergency vehicle preemption and to allow for time-based coordination through the corridor.
Skipper projected that modifying the signal controllers at Broadway and Evergreen would cost $5,000. Coordinating the system is projected to cost $50,000 and emergency vehicle preemption modifications could cost $4,000 per intersection and $2,000 per vehicle.
With all modifications complete, the study predicts that the average vehicle delay on Oxmoor Road will decrease by 56 percent.
After McBrayer’s recommendation, the Council approved a motion to return the issue to the Public Safety Committee for further review and to possibly schedule a public hearing.