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After serving as project engineer of the Argonne Road repavement project for the past year, Matt Gillis of Welch Comer Engineers resurfaced at the Millwood City Council meeting on Tuesday night.
This time around, the agenda featured more talk about signage, portable radar and police patrols than asphalt. After being commissioned by the city in July, Gillis provided an overview of traffic calming measures along a trio of Millwood streets that continue to cause concern for residents.
The idea of a study was first mentioned in February when Millwood hosted a special meeting at City Hall to discuss potential solutions to speeding and other traffic violations on Fowler and Empire roads. Butler Road was later added to the list. Representatives from Spokane County, the Washington State Department of Transportation and the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office provided input at the Feb. 18 meeting.
On Tuesday, Gillis described how Welch Comer considered a variety of criteria – including traffic speeds, accident history and an earlier WSDOT study – in evaluating possible safety implementations on the streets.
The goal, Gillis said, is to identify cost-effective options in reducing speeds and enforcing controlled intersections where motorists have been known to run stop signs, endangering pedestrians and other vehicles. In June, Millwood resident Jeannie Pearson told the City Council how a car ran through a side fence on the west side of her home on Fowler in May.
“We’ve had concerns for a long time,” Pearson said.
Mike Ellis, who also lives on Fowler, reiterated his unease about the narrow street on Tuesday.
“This road is 21 feet wide and the average speed is 35 miles per hour,” Ellis said. “The cars aren’t stopping.”
Millwood paid for increased emphasis patrols in the Fowler/Empire area during the Argonne improvement project, from early May through the end of August. In one four-hour period on May 24, from 3 to 7 p.m., a total of 10 tickets were distributed along Fowler and Empire. Most of the violations involved speeding and running stop signs.
Gillis mentioned additional patrols as part of a campaign emphasizing enforcement and education. He added that a portable radar device, monitoring speed and traffic volume, could also be utilized. Machines of this type typically run around $5,000.
“It shows if vehicles are accelerating or decelerating when they see the signs,” Gillis said.
Physical implements like traffic circles – smaller renditions of roundabouts – and chicanes – artificial features creating extra turns in the roadway – could also help to reduce speeds, Gillis added.
Council Member Glenn Bailey said a significant part of the problem on Fowler and other local streets has to do with the issue of out-of-town motorists cutting through Millwood roads en route to another destination.
“These drivers have no ownership of what’s going on in Millwood,” he said. “This town is the middle of transportation to other places.”
Gillis described how there have been 13 accidents in the last five years along the Fowler/Empire corridor with a dozen of them occurring at the intersection of Argonne and Empire. As far as average speed, 85 percent of vehicles on Empire travel at 31 mph while on Fowler, the standard pace is 27 mph. Both streets are posted at 25 mph.
Mork said the city still needs to address the vehicles that fall outside of the average.
“We have to do something because there are still people going 50 and 60 miles per hour up there.”
Gillis said Welch Comer was recommending similar options presented earlier by WSDOT that focused on education and enforcement, namely the utilization of emphasis patrols, upgrading signage and the possible purchase of a mobile radar device.
Mork said the city would start by setting up counter boxes – tracking speeds and traffic volume – on the streets in question and evaluate signage on a range of local roads. He said a special meeting on street safety would likely take place in October.
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By
Craig Howard
