Saratoga News

Traffic mitigation techniques seem to have a calming effect

Officials, Miller residents pay careful attention

By Sarah Lombardo

Cars on Baylor Avenue are traveling a bit slower since speed mitigation factors were implemented late last year, according to Public Safety Commission data--and that's good news for more than just Baylor Avenue residents.

Baylor Avenue is being watched carefully by city officials and residents in the Prides Crossing area of Saratoga, including Miller Avenue and surrounding streets, to see just how effective the speed-stoppers have been and if they could be used in others parts of the city.

Speed surveys, using a radar trailer equipped with a computer to track and record the volume and speeds of passing cars, were taken on Baylor in each direction in August of last year, according to Public Safety Commissioner Frank Lemmon. In late September, such traffic-calming techniques as speed humps, medians and additional stop signs were installed on the residential street in an effort to slow cars that residents claim have been using Baylor as a high-speed shortcut ever since Highway 85 opened in 1994.

Lemmon said speed surveys were then repeated on Baylor in November and December 1997.

"There's about a five-mile-an-hour [reduction] since work was done," Lemmon said. "And that's a good, round number."

According to Lemmon, about 85 percent of the cars on Baylor seem to now be traveling at or below the posted speed limit. That still leaves 15 percent of travelers who are going above the limit, but of that 15 percent, Lemmon said, most were within about five miles an hour of the limit. That makes for close to a seven-mile-an-hour reduction in the highest speeds along that street, he said.

Richard Gurney, president of the Sunland Park Homeowners Association of which Baylor is a part, said he hasn't spoken formally with residents who live on Baylor as a group, but that one Baylor resident told him she has noticed a difference in speeds since traffic-calming devices were installed.

And the most important thing, said Gurney, a Purdue Drive resident, is that traffic has not seemed to flow onto streets surrounding Baylor, as many residents feared it would.

"It'd been pretty quiet on every street," he said. "We haven't noticed an increase overall."

But Lemmon cautioned that the speed survey results are averages and that the figures are not necessarily an indication that each neighborhood should now be equipped with the same traffic-calmers as Baylor's.

Some residents even believe that the speed surveys taken with the radar trailer are inaccurate because cars purposely slow down when they see the trailer ahead, so the radar shows cars driving much slower than they really do.

But a six-month study along the road, conducted by CCS Planning and Engineering consultants, might offer more concrete results. The study, Gurney said, is scheduled to begin in June.

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