Summary of May 20, 2008 Traffic Calming Meeting

Our May 20, 2008 traffic calming meeting was well attended with over 100 neighbors. We had a speaker from the City of Tulsa, two guests from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, and our District 9 City Councilor in attendance.

1. NEIGHBORHOOD TRAFFIC STUDY/SPEED HUMPS

Michael Schrader, Traffic Engineer from the City of Tulsa began the meeting by explaining the process of having speed humps installed on city streets. In short, any city street may be considered for speed humps if 67% of the residents who live on the street approve of their installation.

Mr. Schrader confirmed that our neighborhood has a "cut through" problem as drivers attempt to bypass major arterials by cutting through our neighborhood streets. The goal is to eliminate that problem with a comprehensive study of the neighborhood and strategic placement of speed humps. Mr. Schrader indicated that many of the stop signs in the neighborhood are ineffective and a more proven way to reduce speed is by installing speed humps and taking out some of the stop signs. Mr. Schrader listened to a number of concerns brought up by neighbors about their particular streets and then asked for a vote to determine if the neighbors wanted the City to study the traffic flow and patterns in our entire neighborhood. The neighbors voted by a show of hands in favor, overwhelmingly, to move this issue forward. Mr. Schrader will study the square mile between 51st and 61st Streets, between Peoria and Lewis, and he will propose a plan for strategic placement of speed humps.

After the City has determined where speed humps will be most effective, a petition will be circulated on each street that is slated for speed humps. If 67% of the residents living adjacent to the proposed speed humps approve of their installation, the City will move forward to have the humps installed on that street.

If you have any questions about this process or would like to discuss this issue further, please contact Michael Schrader at 520-1337 or by email at mschrader@cityoftulsa.org.

2. SPEED HUMPS ALONGSIDE HELLER PARK

As many neighbors will have already noticed, five speed humps have been installed between 54th and 56th Streets on Utica alongside Heller Park. These humps were petitioned for and approved of as part of a separate street study that began before this meeting. Please note that no speed humps will be installed north of 54th Street on Utica. This will allow easy access to the park by emergency vehicles. Also, please note that the three-way stop sign at 56th Street was not removed. This is due to the high volume of pedestrian traffic at that crossing.

3. I-44 WIDENING

We had two guests from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation in attendance. They indicated that they were attending in a listening capacity only, but they did summarize the general timeline for I-44 construction in our area. The section affecting the Lewis overpass is slated to be one of the last pieces of the Riverside to Yale widening project. Widening of the Lewis section of I-44 is slated to begin in 2011 and all sections are slated to be complete by 2012. To discuss more specific questions about I-44 widening, you may contact the ODOT representatives who attended our meeting by calling 918-838-9933 or by contacting them directly by email: Kenna Mitchell, kamitchell@odot.org or Paul Green, pdgreen@odot.org.

4. SOUND WALL/STREET CLOSINGS

Quadrant 1 Captain, Jamie Belger, also circulated a petition to request that ODOT construct a continuous sound wall between Troost, Trenton and St. Louis along the I-44 bypass road and that the City of Tulsa allow these streets to be permanently closed. Currently, the planned sound wall will have breaks to allow access from these three minor streets to the bypass road. The breaks in the sound wall will greatly diminish the sound wall's effectiveness, whereas closing the streets and constructing a continuous sound wall will reduce traffic, improve safety and security in the neighborhood and greatly reduce the noise pollution of I-44. For more information about this effort, please contact Jamie Belger at jlbelger@att.net or 607-9979.