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Home My WebLink About11/9/2004CITY OF DIAMOND BAR MINUTES OF THE TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING NOVEMBER 9, 2004 CALL TO ORDER: Chair Pincher called the meeting to order at 7:08 p.m. in the South Coast Air Quality Management/Government Center Hearing Board Room, 21865 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, California 91765. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Commissioner Morris led the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL: Present: Chair Pincher, Vice Chairman Torng and Commissioners Morris, Shah and Virginkar. Also Present: David Liu, Director of Public Works; Fred Alamolhoda, Senior Engineer; Kimberly Molina, Assistant Engineer; Sharon Gomez, Senior Management Analyst and Debbie Gonzales, Administrative Assistant. I. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: A. Minutes of regular meeting of October 14, 2004. VC/Torng moved, C/Morris seconded, to approve the October 14, 2004 minutes as presented. Motion carried by the following Roll Call vote: AYES: COMMISSIONERS: Morris, Shah, VC/Torng, NOES: COMMISSIONERS: None/Pincher ABSTAIN: COMMISSIONERS: Virginkar ABSENT. COMMISSIONERS: None II. PUBLIC COMMENTS: None Offered: III. CONSENT CALENDAR: None IV. ITEMS FROM STAFF: A. Traffic Enforcement Update — Received and filed on the following items: 1. Citations: October 2004 2. Collisions: October 2004 3. Future Deployment of the Radar Trailer V. OLD BUSINESS: None VI._ NEW BUSINESS: None NOVEMBER 9, 2004 PAGE 2 T&T COMMISSION VII. STATUS OF PREVIOUS ACTION ITEMS: PWD/Liu reported that on October 19 the City Council approved the left -turn signal modification work for the following locations: Diamond Bar Boulevard at Sunset Crossing Road; Diamond Bar Boulevard at the NB SR 57 On -Ramp, and Diamond Bar Boulevard at Cold Spring Lane. The Council also approved as part of this fiscal year's capital improvement program, a new signal on Diamond Bar Boulevard at Maple Hill Road. On November 2, 2004, the City Council approved the Commission's recommendation to install multi -way stop signs on Longview Drive at Stardust Drive. Also on November 2, 2004, staff presented a proposal to the City Council recommending utilization of two driver feedback signs as a pilot project for the City's traffic calming program. SMA/Gomez stated that staff received presentations from 3M and Fortel, companies that manufacture message board signs used in conjunction with stop signs. The LED signs are normally posted below a speed limit sign and flash the speed limit. in addition, radar installed inside the sign indicates the rate of speed of approaching vehicles. The more sophisticated Fortel sign can be programmed to display multiple messages such as the posted speed limit, the vehicles speed, Slow down messages, etc. Staff is awaiting feedback from the City's traffic engineers and other cities that have used this technology. SMA/Gomez responded to C/Virginkar that the 3M signs cost about $4,500 to $5,000 per sign and the Fortel signs cost from $5,500 to $8,000 per sign. C/Virginkar felt it would help if staff developed criteria for these installations. VC/Torng indicated to staff that George Allen, City of Garden Grove, spoke about this technology and said that it had reduced speed in their city by about 21 percent. Mr. Allen also stated that the trick was to not utilize the sign on a continuous basis and only at certain times to educate the drivers. Mr. Allen said he felt the signs were most useful in school zones. C/Morris said he hoped that this would not become a public request program until completion of a pilot program. He agreed with CNirginkar that specific criteria should be developed and felt that a combination of traffic volume and speeds in excess of the 85th percentile would be a good goal. VIII. ITEMS FROM COMMISSIONERS: C/Shah felt the new right -turn signs on Grand Avenue near the Diamond Bar Center were working well. VC/Torng found that there was a lot of duplication of information at this year's Traffic Commission Seminar. However, it provided good reinforcement. He offered NOVEMBER 9, 2004 PAGE 3 T&T COMMISSION his seminar materials to staff and other commissioners. He said he was pleased to learn about the LED speed sign program. Chair/Pincher said she recently visited Etna, California just east of Yreka in northern California and the only road in and out of the town of 600 residents had one of the LED sign installations. She referred the Commission to the Diamond Bar City News she received on November 5, 2004, and complimented the author of the article "Diamond Bar's Got Smarts." She felt that the author did a beautiful job and that the article was easy to read and offered excellent explanations. PWD/Liu responded to Chair/Pincher that while various staff members contributed to the content, PIM/Blakey was responsible for its authorship. As a result of the article staff had received a number of telephone calls from residents. IX. INFORMATIONAL_ ITEMS: A. Response to C.W. Beck Request. SMA/Gomez gave a brief presentation in response to some of Mr. Beck's concerns and reported that staff would be in a position to offer a full report to the Commission at its next regularly scheduled meeting. With respect to placing signage at each signalized intersection in Diamond Bar indicating the red-light violation fees, she restated that Mr. Beck felt that the posting would be a deterrent. SMA/Gomez said that she was attempting to get information from Mr. Beck about his source of information and that other possible warning measures were being considered. The Sheriff's Department indicated that it was difficult to enforce red light running because it took a minimum of three officers in three different vehicles to run such an enforcement operation and that during peak hours it was difficult to place three officers at one location. Therefore, staff and Council are discussing the possibility of camera enforcement to replace manual enforcement. Secondly, Mr. Beck requested that the City place a "No Right Turn on Red" sign at the intersection of Diamond Bar Boulevard and Grand Avenue. The City's traffic engineers are opposed to such sign installations at this particular intersection because to disallow the turn would be a detriment to traffic movement. Another request was to reduce the speed limit on Grand Avenue and Diamond Bar Boulevard to 35 mph for the entire length of the streets. However, the City's recently approved speed zone study recommended no such changes due to the specific criteria. SMA/Gomez said she would speak with Mr. Beck to advise him about these items. B. Neighborhood Traffic Management Program Meeting with Joel Falter, Katz Okitsu & Associates. NOVEMBER 9, 2004 PAGE 4 T&T COMMISSION Chair/Pincher recessed the Hearing Board Room meeting and reconvened the meeting in Conference Room CC -8. The Commissioners commenced the session with a round table discussion. C/Morris felt that one of the primary goals of the study was to educate the public about how their behavior affected their neighbors. She stated that most of the school traffic problems stem from bad behavior. - C/Morris suggested that at the behest of the schools, parents could be encouraged to sign a contract agreeing to practice good behavior. SE/Alamolhoda agreed that rather than the City it might be more palpable for the schools to initiate the contacts. In response to CNirginkar, Mr. Faulter explained that once a sub -area within the district was identified, he would look to identify a street or series of streets where there appeared to be problems of speeding, cut -through and other related traffic issues and begin to collect data on those areas of concern to gain understanding of the real issues. Using the data, he would begin to formulate a plan for mitigation. PWD/Liu explained how staff and law enforcement would be involved in the process. The City committed that it would be closely monitored for effectiveness, He felt that significant resources to this study and the Commission could rest assured community participation was essential to the study. C/Morris felt that by keeping cut -through traffic on the freeways and keeping arterial traffic on the arterials it would solve a myriad of neighborhood traffic problems. CNirginkar agreed that the study should commence in the northern portion of the City due to the geography at Sunset Crossing Road and the cut - through traffic. The next area for study would be the brown area around Leyland Drive continuing toward Goldrush Drive and the Pantera Park area; and, then the pink area with a lot of cut -through traffic from Diamond Bar Boulevard to Pathfinder Road to the SR 57. For the most part thereen area was cured. The blue area would be at the lower end of the spectrum due to its flat terrain. CNirginkar suggested sending a well-designed colored brochure of each area to the residents in order to better attract their attention to the study. PWD/Liu suggested that in order to cut down on the cost of the mailin that a well-designed colored postcard could be used. g Chair/Pincher reiterated that the Commissioners concurred with the ranking of the areas outlined by CNirginkar. g NOVEMBER 9, 2004 PAGE 5 T&T COMMISSION Mr. Faulter concluded that he was present tonight to receive the Commission's input. He explained that traffic management/traffic calming was a type of social engineering. When dealing with people's emotions and attempts to change their habits the formula of set guidelines sometimes worked and sometimes did not work. X. SCHEDULE OF FUTURE CITY EVENTS — as adgendized. XII. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS: The Commission concurred to go dark on December 9, 2004 due to lack of quorum. ADJOURNMENT: With no further business to come before the Traffic and Transportation Commission, Chair/Pincher adjourned the meeting at 9:15 p.m. to Thursday, January 13, 2005 at 7:00 p.m. Respectfully, 4idLiu., Secretary Attest: Chair �iana Pincher