photo by: City of Lawrence

Vice Mayor Bart Littlejohn, Commissioner Courtney Shipley and Commissioner Amber Sellers discuss the proposed OWL traffic calming design as part of the commission's meeting on April 18, 2023.

After approximately 1.5 years of the neighborhood piloting different configurations of temporary measures, some of which stirred disagreements among neighbors, city leaders have approved the design of permanent traffic calming measures for Old West Lawrence.

As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission voted 4-0, with Mayor Lisa Larsen absent, to proceed with a $306,250 design that includes 23 traffic calming devices — made up of a mix of four types of devices — to slow traffic and discourage cut-through traffic.

OWL was the first neighborhood to pilot the city’s new version of its neighborhood traffic calming program, the Neighborhood Traffic Management Program, and multiple commissioners said a lot had been learned through the process to lead to both a good design for OWL and a better process for future neighborhoods that go through the program.

“I feel it’s actually going to do what the neighborhood needs it to do,” Commissioner Courtney Shipley said.

The OWL Neighborhood Association applied to be part of the Neighborhood Traffic Management pilot program in 2021, and the first configuration of temporary traffic diverters was installed in November 2021. The first installation was met with mixed reactions from OWL residents, with some expressing frustration at having to take longer routes to and from their homes. Two more configurations were subsequently piloted. JEO Consulting Group, the traffic engineering firm that has been working with the city and the neighborhood on the project, collected traffic volume data, traffic speed data and input from neighbors after each configuration, ultimately arriving at the final configuration and the recommendation for the permanent installation.

JEO recommended a concept that consists of eight speed humps, two speed cushions, six chicanes (a type of curb extension) and seven traffic circles. The chicanes extend into the street, forming what is called a choker, essentially a narrowing of the road at midblock intended to reduce vehicle speeds, according to presentation materials. A JEO representative said that the recommended design focused more on speed reduction than reducing cut-through traffic compared to the previous configurations.

Though a couple of neighbors expressed concern about the chicanes specifically, most commenters were in support of the current plan. Charlie Sedlock, chair of the OWL Traffic Safety Committee, said there was a lot of support in the neighborhood, and he urged the commission to support the project and commit to safety for the neighborhood.

“That’s what this is about,” Sedlock said. “It’s about traffic safety, it’s about safety of pedestrians, safety of our kids.”

photo by: City of Lawrence

A map shows the locations and types of 23 traffic-calming devices recommended for Old West Lawrence. The red rectangle represents a speed hump, the triangle a speed cushion, the circle a traffic circle, and the blue rectangle a “choker.”

A few public commenters also spoke in opposition to the cost of the project or posed questions as to why it would cost so much to install the permanent devices.

Shipley pointed out, for reference, that installing a traffic signal costs $350,000, and that a traffic signal would not accomplish the goals of project. Commissioner Brad Finkeldei added that other options, such as having police officers sit at multiple locations to reduce speeding, were not all that efficient and would be “expensive on multiple levels.” Finkeldei said that he didn’t expect traffic calming to be universally popular, but that the design had been modified and improved since the first configurations.

“Looking at all this together, I think it makes a big difference,” he said. “Obviously we tried some configurations that were much less popular than this one, and we heard about that.”

Finkeldei said he thought the new traffic calming program, which replaced a program that added speed bumps to individual streets, looked at neighborhoods more comprehensively rather than adding devices that might simply shift traffic to another street. The presentation included a section on lessons learned from the pilot, and Commissioner Amber Sellers she thought the city could build from the OWL project. Vice Mayor Bart Littlejohn said he was happy there were not as many people dissatisfied with the new design, and that he felt optimistic as there was still room to get input as the design process moves forward.

The city’s Multi-modal Transportation Commission reviewed the concept in March and recommended it for approval. City staff is recommending that the speed humps, speed cushions and chicanes be constructed in 2023 and the traffic circles be constructed in 2024. The memo states that completing the construction over two years will help spread the cost over two budget years of the Neighborhood Traffic Management Program.