Issaquah Council approves traffic calming plan for Olde Town

More structured, long-term traffic calming measures are being taken in Issaquah’s Olde Town neighborhood after the City Council approved a $310,000 funding request for the initiative at its July 2 meeting.

Kurt Seemann, public works engineer, made a presentation to the council on the work that has been done to calm traffic and collect data on the Olde Town area.

The city began a pilot project meant to gather neighborhood feedback, traffic data, and try some devices intended to slow down and manage the traffic. The pilot project used temporary physical traffic calming devices like speed humps and no-left-turn signs. City staff gathered data on speeds and volumes on the roads and also community data.

“I think we received well over 300 community comments on this project,” he said.

Based on the success of the program and the data collected, staff proposed a longer term solution to implement these measures, removing the temporary devices, and installing longer term versions of the calming devices at key locations along certain roads.

“We are really streamlining the devices, we are going with speed humps generally throughout Olde Town, with the exception of one traffic circle,” he said. “It’s our recommendation, to permanently remove the no-left-turn signs. We felt that when we (removed) them halfway through the pilot program, there was no measurable significant change at speeds or cut-through traffic. In addition, based on input we received… we are proposing an additional speed hump on Andrews Street.”

Seemann also discussed alleys, which had been a concern brought up in feedback from the community. While the alleys were not a core focus point of the pilot program, the staff will collect more data and return to the Council Infrastructure Committee in the fall.

“We are proposing to gather data traffic counts and speeds for alleys, both north and south of sunset starting this summer,” he said. “We know that things change after school, so then coming back early fall after school is back in session with a second set of data then analyzing that data and determining what mitigation measures may be appropriate if they are warranted. Our plan is to come back to CIC committee this fall with those findings and recommendations specific to the alley.”

In discussion, council member Stacey Goodman brought up one of the public comments on the topic asking to see a six-month follow up to see how the devices are working. Seemann said it was a great idea and even though staff had not planned to do that, said they will work the communications group to go back out and ask the community about how they feel about the project once it’s been in place for several months.

Goodman also addressed some questions about the use of the word “permanent” in regards to the new traffic calming devices the staff is asking for the funding to install. The use of the word permanent had caused some concern from community members. Seemann clarified that the use of the word was just meant to show contrast with the temporary pilot devices.

“Permanent meaning we are going to remove those temporary devices, which are typically rubber curbing and rubber bumps that are nailed into the pavement, removing those and replacing them with permanent asphalt speed humps,” he said. “One of the concerns with permanent was this idea that we are going to do this work with OT then we’ll say, ‘We are done Olde Town and never coming back or working with you in any way.’ That’s simply not the case… I feel like we’ve built a good relationship with the Olde Town community and we certainly want to maintain that.”

Council member Victoria Hunt asked about what the temporary traffic calming devices will be used for going forward. Seemann said that they can be used to implement calming and collect data in other areas of Issaquah or future traffic calming projects.

The agenda bill passed unanimously, with each of the council members thanking the staff for working with the concerns of the citizens in mind to create the traffic calming plan.