photo by: Kim Callahan

A handmade sign in East Lawrence at the intersection of East Eighth and New York streets, seen Friday, Oct. 26, 2018, reminds motorists to drive slowly through residential neighborhoods.

The city of Lawrence now has a website for residents to report traffic safety concerns and to potentially get improvements made to roadways and increase traffic enforcement by police.

Assistant City Manager Diane Stoddard announced the creation of the website at the City Commission’s most recent meeting. Stoddard said the website allows residents to provide information about any dangerous driving behavior in their neighborhoods.

“So if there are any concerns about people speeding or other hazards that are in the neighborhood, this is a way to get that information to us,” Stoddard said.

Specifically, the website provides an online form for residents to report concerns such as vehicles speeding, ignoring school zones, running stop signs, making illegal turns, failing to yield at crosswalks and other hazardous behavior. The form has fields for residents to enter the location of the behavior and the days and times it most frequently occurs.

The website replaces the current, less centralized way for residents to make complaints. According to a memo to the commission, staff members from multiple departments receive calls and emails from residents who have concerns about repeated dangerous driving in their neighborhoods. The online form was created in an effort to direct all traffic safety concerns to one location, the memo says.

Municipal Services and Operations Department and Lawrence Police Department staff members will review the traffic safety concerns submitted by residents on a regular basis, according to the memo. The memo states that the information will be used to identify trends and target traffic education, enforcement and traffic calming to problematic locations or persistent issues.

MSO Management Analyst Kevyn Gero said that the different traffic management strategies will be prioritized annually and implemented as funding is available.

The city is in the process of re-evaluating its traffic-calming program, which adds physical devices such as speed bumps or traffic circles to streets to slow traffic. City staff has noted that funding for traffic calming projects is limited and that the list of projects has been growing over the years. As a result, the city is considering a more comprehensive program that could include more traffic enforcement and education.

Residents can report their traffic concerns online at lawrenceks.org/traffic-safety/, and the site also provides a link to the appropriate form to report street maintenance issues such as potholes.