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Stop signs, speeding dominate council's committee meetings

by

Sydney Cromwell

Upcoming traffic studies seem to be the most likely source of solutions for a number of traffic and speeding issues that Homewood City Council members discussed at their Feb. 4 committee meetings.

From Raleigh Avenue to Hollywood Boulevard, residents brought their requests to the council for stop signs, speed reduction and ways to reroute heavy traffic off of neighborhood streets.

During the public safety committee's meeting, a number of residents on Woodbine Drive and Lakewood Drive came to advocate for turning the intersection of those streets into a three-way street. Residents said vehicle speeds on Woodbine are excessive, especially with a hill near the intersection that limits visibility.

“You have absolutely no idea what’s on the other side of the hill until it’s too late,” said one woman, who lives by the intersection. She has a child with special needs, she said, and she worries that he could get hit by a car if he slips out of the house unnoticed.

The committee decided to have Randy Hambley, the head of the traffic department, do a small-scale traffic study on the intersection and bring the results to the next committee meeting. In the meantime, committee members also decided to ask the Police Department for increased speeding enforcement in the area.

The extra enforcement was supported by residents at the meeting, though Ward 3 Councilor Patrick McClusky noted that, based on previous targeted efforts against neighborhood speeding, “probably 99 percent of the tickets that are going to be written are to your neighbors.”

Residents also came to ask for traffic safety measures at Hollywood Boulevard and La Prado Place such as intersection stop signs and crosswalks for drivers and the large number of pedestrians, including students at nearby Shades Cahaba Elementary, who travel those roads.

“I don’t think there’s a busier pedestrian intersection anywhere in the Hollywood district,” one homeowner said.

The heavy traffic volume on Hollywood is also an issue, since the road functions both as a main thoroughfare between Homewood and Mountain Brook and also as a residential street.

Committee members disagreed on the best methods for traffic and speed reduction.

Ward 3 Councilor Walter Jones said he believes Hollywood needs fewer stop signs to keep traffic flowing smoothly. He and Director of Public Services Berkley Squires said more stop signs on a heavily traveled road would make cars more likely to turn onto smaller neighborhood streets in attempts to route around backed up traffic.

“That’s a main thoroughfare whether you want it to be or don’t want it to be,” Squires said.

Ward 5 Councilor Peter Wright, on the other hand, said he supported stop signs. Some residents said more stop signs will encourage drivers to find other, more efficient routes instead of driving through neighborhoods.

Committee members discussed another small traffic study for the area but also mentioned that stop sign placement and effectiveness could be better determined through the upcoming citywide traffic study, which will be conducted by Volkert Engineering. The study will look at both vehicle and pedestrian traffic on roads throughout the city.

That same traffic study will likely bring solutions for volume and speeding issues on Raleigh Avenue, which Ward 2 Councilor Mike Higginbotham brought up at the public safety committee meeting.

Higginbotham said the road is a frequent complaint for constituents due to its heavy traffic load, especially from larger trucks, and safety concerns for pedestrians. He suggested traffic calming measures such as a "bulb-out," which narrows the road and encourages drivers to slow down without the potential problems for emergency vehicles that speed bumps create.

City attorney Mike Kendrick said an ordinance is already in place to prohibit delivery and large vehicles from driving residential streets unless that is their specific destination. He suggested increased enforcement of that ordinance as an immediate measure to help the situation.

Higginbotham said he wanted to make sure solutions could be found soon and that the city wouldn't wait around too long on the traffic study, which has been planned for several years but never enacted.

Ward 1 Councilor Britt Thames said the citywide traffic study has been stalled while waiting on an agreement from the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) about the fee scope of the study. That agreement should be in place soon and the traffic study, which will take about a year to complete, can begin.

While traffic count information will take a year, Thames said certain elements of the traffic study — such as traffic calming and streetscape recommended standards — can be produced within a matter of months once the study begins.

All of these traffic issues were carried over to receive further information.

Some other road and traffic-related agenda items from the night's committee meetings were sent to the full council for a vote at its next meeting, including:

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