14 - Laserfiche WebLink

r One development has 10 homes,the other 9. Currently both exit their neighborhoods and travel down a slight downgrade to a traffic light where they can safely and quickly pull out onto Vineyard Avenue. Total time to drive from the center of the developments:42 seconds. Its easy. Its safe. Sounds totally appropriate. The New Town Plan: We were all shocked to see a new road carved down the opposite side of these two developments into an extremely steep grade (_/+than that of monition)that drops down into a narrow man made canyon...Then...directs the fast moving vehicle to shoot across the Old Vineyard walking path without stopping-while un-expecting walkers,joggers, cyclists, children running ahead of parents cross the path into a 6000 lbs car that cannot stop. Wait..it gets better. The plan...then connects/flows onto Rolling Hills Drive at this accelerated pace down a second hill into a neighborhood with 35 children that live and play in the streets. Then the cars must turn right down Vineyard Heights Lane,then turn left to Thiessen,then finally to Vineyard Avenue. Where there is no light. And a location that is hard to pull out onto Vineyard due to a blind bend in road. Total time to drive from the center of the develops along this path: almost 2 minutes. Conversations with Matt Gruber and Mike the town Traffic Engineers: Both very nice and polite. Our development raised these issues at a town planning meeting 6 weeks ago. We also had Mike and Matt meet 15 neighbors one early morning with a group of neighbors to describe the plan and the logic. Question to Mike and Matt: Why would you not have a stop sign at the bottom of this mega steep hill before crossing the Old Vineyard Walking Trail:Answer: "We can't its too steep. Cars can't stop. Plus people over time will run right through the stop sign." Our reply: "You are making our point" "This is dangerous...someone on the trail is going to get hit and die...the steep grade plus the man made canyon on both sides of the road prevent walkers, bikers, kids from seeing cars flying down this steep hill until its too late." Question to Mike and Matt: "Why don't you put some speed bumps?"Answer: "We can't, cars are picking up too much speed and the would get 'air'when they would hit them. Our reply: "You are making our point". "This road is too steep, narrow and canyon like, and barrels across a walking path and into a child filled neighborhood." They informed us that it goes back to a 1999 and 2014 plans for the walking path. But neither of these plans had 19 homes sitting on that hill-did not appropriately assess the amount of people in the area nor the steepness of the road, nor crossing the walking path. They informed us that eventually they would take out the traffic light on the other side of these two developments. Mind boggling. Non logical. We asked: "Let us get this straight...you have a shorter route from the center of both developments on the hill to a safe and controlled traffic light." "Its 42 seconds down a gentle grade." "But your proposal is to take out the shorter route, a safe light and have all 19 homes come down this steep hill shooting across the walking path, into our neighborhood an almost 2 min route to a more difficult entry to Vineyard Avenue." Their answer: "Thats right." "Mike adds, "I calculate 200 cars will enter and exit up and down this hill and your neighborhood every day." Our reply: "How is this logical for a plan? How is this safe? How could our town leaders allow such a scenario to occur? We are going to demand that this to be changed." Their answer:There are other areas over by the ridge where we have had to do this. My Reply: "I went and drove those sites. They had no other choice-those areas did not have an already existing choice with a traffic light. In this case you have a substantially better choice. This has a safety and ease of use option that your examples that you site do not have. Not an appropriate comparison." 3