Neighborhood traffic management: Dade County, Florida's street closure experience

Institute of Transportation Engineers. ITE Journal, Jan 1998 by Castellone, Anthony J, Hasan, Muhammed M

AS A RESULT Of NUMEROUS REQUESTS FOR STREET CLOSURES FROM NEIGHBORHOOD RESIDENTS, ONE FLORIDA COUNTY CONDUCTED A TRAFFIC FLOW MODIFICATION STUDY TO ADDRESS RESIDENTS' CONCERNS.

METROPOLITAN DADE COUNTY, Fla., USA, with a population of 2,013,821, is a metropolis of vast cultural diversity. Dade County has jurisdiction for traffic control in over 30 municipalities. Within the last several years, traffic on local streets in various parts of Metropolitan Dade County has received widespread attention. Neighborhood residents have inundated the county with requests for street closures; perceivably to improve their quality of life and safety. The Metro-Dade County Public Works Department (MDCPWD) and Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) subsequently imposed a moratorium on all pending street closure requests and obtained the professional engineering services of Frederic R. Harris Inc. to conduct a street closure/traffic flow modification study. The purpose of this study was to research issues and concerns relating to neighborhood street closures while developing a traffic management procedure to adequately address and analyze citizen requests for traffic flow modification.

Although the grid network of streets in Metropolitan Dade County often encourages traffic from congested arterial streets to overflow onto residential streets,l research on the subject of residential traffic control indicates that citizens' desires for street closures escalate for the following reasons:

* Excessive speed on residential streets;

* Excessive amount of traffic on residential streets;

* Traffic intrusion in communities with multiple access points;

* Accidents;

* Traffic noise; and

*Fear of crime.

DILEMMA FACING GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

Government agencies are increasingly faced with a host of traffic engineering questions when evaluating citizen desires for street closures; questions such as:

* Are volumes, cut-through traffic, vehicular speeds, accidents or crime statistics of such a magnitude to warrant street closures?

* Will diverted traffic as a result of street closures adversely impact other streets or adjoining neighborhoods (and create additional requests)?

* Will the proposed improvements affect emergency vehicle access?

* What other traffic control measures are available to address residents' concerns?

* How will requests for street closure be processed, analyzed, implemented and monitored?

In addition, these agencies also are confronted with both legal and financial challenges when addressing citizen requests for closure. For instance:

* Who will pay for and maintain the requested improvements?

* What are the legal issues that may complicate a traffic mitigation policy? These public and private concerns must be clearly understood when addressing requests for local street closures or any other neighborhood traffic flow modification.

STUDY OBJECTIVES The MDCPWD and MPO, in response to increased requests for street closure from municipalities, obtained the professional engineering services of a private consulting firm to conduct a study to investigate alternative solutions to street closures as well as to develop procedures and guidelines. The objective of the study was to develop a uniform set of guidelines and standard procedures to be followed by local municipalities and the county for implementing neighborhood and localized area traffic control.

THE STEERING COMMITTEE

A carefully selected project steering committee was comprised of representatives from the consultant, the Florida Department of Transportation, Metro-- Dade County and various local municipalities; some of whom had previous experiences with citizen requests for street closures. To maximize public input and information sharing, the steering committee periodically convened throughout the study process. The steering committee developed a standardized set of sequential procedures and guidelines for use by the public, local officials, or other private sector interests considering any request for traffic flow modifications or responding to requests to restrict local traffic access. These procedures would provide Metropolitan Dade County and its municipalities a uniform approach to facilitate the review process. The proposed procedures ensure that the aforementioned concerns would be appropriately studied and evaluated in a timely manner and that the full range of traffic and community impacts would be considered.

EXISTING POLICY

Pre-study Metro-Dade County procedures for implementing street closures may include any of the following methods:

1. Creation of a special taxing district that would allow private neighborhood homeowner associations to petition for traffic control and monitoring of all traffic entering the development in exchange for special assessment fees based on the degree of control;

2. Reverting the right-of-way to the adjacent property owners for street vacations and cul-de-sacs;

3. Within a municipality, citizens petition the municipality for street closure; and

4. In un-incorporated Dade County, citizens submit street closure requests to the Public Works Department.