November 19, 2018
My only concern is #5 the removal of the right turn lane in front of Tarleton Oak. Traffic gets backed up on High Street both east and east bound trying to cross the Belmont Bridge. If you can’t avoid the backup on High west bound traffic will backup even further. I suspect people will try get around it by going through the residential streets.
Thank you for sending in your comment on the design of the E. High Streetscape Project. The project team has been conducting traffic analysis and presenting their findings at various public meetings. You may review these materials at https://www.easthighstreetscape.org/resources/. The traffic analysis conducted in support of this projects includes a growth rate of future vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian activity to account for redevelopment. However, level of service or delay analysis has been performed for the highest volume peak hour travel in both the AM and PM to ensure the efficiency, or amount of vehicles proceeding through the signals, can be maximized making traffic slightly better in the short-term and the same or slightly worse in the long-term. Further the inclusion of short right turn lanes, such as the existing one SB on 9th Street at the E. High Street intersection provide minimal benefit, is confusing to vehicular users and creates a longer crossing distance for pedestrians. The effectiveness of the right turn lane to operations at 9th Street and E. High Street intersection is evidenced by the fact that traffic operations at the intersection are not harmed from the existing condition to the future build scenario. Since the right turn lane does little to improve traffic operations, it is proposed that the area gained at the corner (within the existing right turn lane) be utilized for a small pedestrian plaza to complement the private development project proposed called Tarleton Oaks and an improved CAT bus stop.