photo by: City of Lawrence

A City of Lawrence shows the revised layout of the traffic calming devices in Old West Lawrence.

A traffic calming project in Old West Lawrence will enter a new phase this week, as city crews remove some of the devices and install additional speed bumps at other locations.

The city said the work represents the final phase of a pilot project meant to test a variety of traffic calming strategies in residential neighborhoods. The work will involve some traffic disruptions as crews install the devices this week.

The city will be installing the revised traffic calming devices March 16-18, according to a news release from the city. The 600 block of Maine Street, the 700 and 800 blocks of Michigan Street, and the 800 block of Mississippi Street will be closed to through traffic on an alternating basis during this time to complete the installations, subject to change due to weather.

The city will be adding new devices to address speed and volume concerns on Maine, Michigan and Mississippi streets after receiving data about traffic changes following the first round of traffic calming installations.

The first layout included various traffic diverters that prohibited motorists from making certain turns or entering streets at certain intersections, and were meant to reduce cut-through traffic and speeding. The city collected traffic counts before and after the first installation, and the layout changes are meant to improve results. Some diverters will be removed or changed as part of the new layout, and speed bumps will be added to some streets, according to city maps of the new installation.

Traffic engineers working with the city on the project presented the first set of before-and-after vehicle data and the preliminary proposal for the layout changes as part of an open house for OWL residents on Jan. 25, as the Journal-World reported. Daily traffic counts indicated that some blocks saw significantly less traffic while others saw significantly more, resulting in an overall decrease of only 1% in the total number of vehicles per day. Overall speeds also only declined by 1%, though there was a reduction in top speeds.

The pilot project has been met with mixed reactions from residents, with some expressing frustration at having to take longer routes to and from their homes. The OWL Neighborhood Association applied to be part of the Neighborhood Traffic Management Pilot Program last year, and the first iteration of temporary diverters were installed in November.

The traffic data presented in January showed that traffic volume was reduced by 23% on the neighborhood’s local streets, but there was an increase in volume on Maine and Michigan streets, according to the release. To address the unequal impact of the diverters, the city is removing a few of the devices in order to allow traffic volume to redistribute away from the streets that saw an increase.

A map and fact sheet about the new layout is available on the project webpage on the city’s website, Lawrenceks.org.

The city will collect additional input from residents following the new installation. The release states that in a few weeks the city will open a second Lawrence Listens survey to collect resident feedback. The city will make an announcement once the survey is available.

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.