Stop Sign at Wellesley and Pennsylvania?

This is another item on the New Business portion of the City Commission agenda this coming Tuesday (9/16). It asks that a three-way stop sign be placed at Wellesley and Pennsylvania Drives and was placed on the agenda by Mayor Clemens in response to neighbor concerns about the speed/volume of cut-through traffic on the street.

There is a traffic study that accompanies the staff memo. The study, performed by MacMahon and Associates, dated June 9, 2008 recommends not placing a stop sign or other traffic calming measures on this section of the street. See below:

Mr. Kim, P.E., P.T.O.E. finds that neither the volume or speed of traffic warrant the placement of a three way stop in that location. I am sure the city paid for the study and the staff recommendation is counter to the findings of a professional to install a stop sign in spite of the traffic engineer's recommendations.

I live at the other end of Pennsylvania Drive where it dead-ends into Columbia Drive - I happen to be on the southeast corner. Not too sure of the traffic volumes on Columbia, but we do get a lot of cut through traffic between Federal and Dixie. There is a three-way stop there now. Recently, the city came through an repainted the stop lines on the pavement by the stop signs at all three points of the intersection. My living room and courtyard (which I like to make my telephone calls from) face Columbia and therefore I usually have a direct view of the traffic going through this intersection.

Most cars going east or west on Columbia blow right through the intersection without a stop. Some at least slow down but very few make a complete stop. As far as enforcement, I have only seen a police car sitting on Pennsylvania waiting for someone to run the stop sign once - and that was the day they caught me doing it about two years ago. I was told "It's zero tolerance from now on." - it looked like DEFCON 3 in front of my house, by the way.

At one time, it was needed due to the traffic volume that Columbia experienced when Olive Avenue was five lanes - most people used Columbia to switch over to Dixie. Since Olive is two lanes, the volume has noticeably decreased - even with the addition of the Courtyards townhouses at the end of the street. I think now we could actually do away with it completely, but that probably isn't in the cards.

So, I really don't think we need to put stop signs on Wellesley as it is ineffective in a similar location to the north, it creates an enforcement problem and is not justified by the traffic study. Things like this should also be channeled through the neighborhood association and reviewed by the Planning and Zoning Board for its recommendation. There was time for that given the date of the study.