photo by: contributed photo

A median diverter at 8th and Alabama streets in Old West Lawrence is pictured on Nov. 23, 2021.

After a new traffic control effort in Old West Lawrence did not significantly reduce the number of cars traveling through the neighborhood, traffic engineers are preparing to make changes to the layout.

Traffic engineers working with the City of Lawrence on the pilot project presented the first set of before-and-after vehicle data Tuesday as part of an open house for OWL residents, introduced a preliminary proposal for the layout changes, and began collecting input on the proposal from residents. Daily traffic counts indicated there was about a 1% decrease in the total number of vehicles per day, and Steven Buckley with JEO Consulting Group said that while there were other encouraging statistics, that result was disappointing.

“Our hypothesis on this in really looking over the data is that we probably reduced cut-though traffic, but as most of you are aware, it takes you longer to get to and from home,” Buckley said. “… And so what we lost in cut-through traffic we gained in taking residents in our neighborhood additional blocks to get home.”

The OWL Neighborhood Association applied to be part of the Neighborhood Traffic Management Pilot Program, and the temporary diverters were installed in November and will be in place until the spring. The diverters, which prohibit motorists from making certain turns or entering streets at certain intersections, are meant to reduce cut-through traffic and have been met with mixed reactions from residents, with some expressing frustration at having to take longer routes to and from their homes.

More specifically, traffic counts before and after installation of the devices indicated that the overall daily volume of cars was reduced from 21,274 vehicles to 21,076 vehicles, or by about 1%. Buckley said there was also not a big change in speeds, with an overall reduction of 1%, but that top speeds did come down.

Changes in traffic volume were not uniform throughout the neighborhood, and Buckley said the project team was not happy with the increases seen on parts of Michigan and Maine streets, which saw 25% and 41% increases, respectively. However, he said when only looking at the local residential streets in the neighborhood — taking out Tennessee and Maine streets, which are collector streets designed to hold more traffic — there was a 14% reduction in traffic.

Buckley said the challenge was to come up with a solution that achieves the project’s goals, but is also more equitable to the neighborhood as a whole. He emphasized that the project was a pilot and a way to experiment with different methods.

“This is really the first time the city has really taken a neighborhood as a whole, worked really closely with them on a team basis, and tried to come up with a traffic-calming solution for a neighborhood as a whole,” Buckley said.

As part of the second phase of the project, consultants have come up with modifications to the traffic-calming layout based on the data and resident input. Those changes include removal of the diagonal diverter at Eighth and Mississippi streets; removal of the median barriers at Seventh and Louisiana and Eighth and Ohio; flipping the direction of the diagonal diverter at Seventh and Mississippi; as well as the other location changes for median barriers and the installation of four speed humps.

photo by: City of Lawrence

A map shows the proposed changes to the layout of the traffic management pilot project in Old West Lawrence.

A full map of the proposed changes is available on the Neighborhood Traffic Management Program website. Residents can provide input on the proposed revisions using an online survey on the city’s Lawrence Listens platform.

Buckley said consultants would consider resident input as they work to finalize the layout changes, and data would be collected again once the new layout is implemented. He said that ultimately, the city would decide whether to make permanent versions of the traffic control measures based on reduction in traffic, speeds and feedback from OWL residents.

About 200 people participated in the meeting, which was held via Zoom and also had an option to participate in person. The participants were broken into smaller groups of about 40 people, where residents asked questions about the proposed layout changes or the project overall. Some expressed frustration with being forced to take longer routes or about seeing an increase of traffic on particular streets. Kyle Johnson said that some residents conducted their own survey and got 350 responses, and that neighborhoodwide feedback — not just from the neighborhood association — should have occurred from the beginning.

Following the second phase, the project team will use the feedback and data to put together a recommendation regarding a possible permanent installation that will be sent to the Multimodal Transportation Commission for review. The transportation commission’s recommendation will go to the City Commission, which will make the final decision about the project.