City of Dover begins traffic calming pilot project

On Tuesday, June 5, 2012, the City of Dover hosted a kick-off meeting for a traffic calming pilot program that aims to mitigate speed and volumes of traffic traveling on Atkinson, Belknap, Cushing and Lexington streets.

This meeting introduced residents of the streets to Jeffrey Taylor, a consultant selected by the City to work with residents to identify traffic concerns and address those concerns.

Traffic calming addresses traffic volume and speed concerns increasingly brought forward by residents. These concerns may be a result of many factors, including speeding and drivers looking for short cuts (normally off arterials onto neighborhood streets). Overall interest in traffic calming is a result of two factors: safety and neighborhood quality of life.

At its core, traffic calming is the use of techniques intended to reduce the negative effects of motor vehicles on neighborhoods by reducing vehicle speeds and by providing safe spaces for pedestrians and cyclists without having to have a police officer present at all hours of the day and night. It uses education as well as physical design of the roadway to slow traffic down to safe levels.

The traffic calming project was approved as part of the FY13-18 Capital Improvement’s Program, which the City Council adopted in December of 2012. The cost of the first phase of the project is $10,000, which will be used to identify the traffic issues that exist and what remedies might be available to address them.

“Jeff has a strong facilitator background, as well as solid technical knowledge and expertise," said Christopher Parker, Director of Planning and Community Development. "I am sure he and his team will be able to work with the residents to figure out what will work best for their neighborhood. One goal of this project is to identify street by street solutions and not just a cookie cutter solution.”

Doug Steele, Dover’s Community Services Director, added, “This project will give us a good format for working with other neighborhoods in the future. Traffic calming is a topic that comes up frequently with residents and we hope this project can help us work out a process for addressing other areas of the City.” Steele also notes that this project will dovetail nicely into the planned reconstruction of Silver Street. “That project will be designed in the coming months, and we can use the results of this project to enhance the whole area,” he said.

The project is expected to run over the summer, with neighborhood meetings and input. Ultimately, the neighborhood recommendations will be presented to the City’s Transportation Advisory Commission. As part of the project, staff and the consultant will run some trials of various traffic calming techniques that the neighborhood supported at the kick off meeting. These include islands at the entrances to the roads, adjusting the placement of speed limit signs and adding curvilinear features to the curb line. Funding for the implementation of recommendations will be proposed in the FY14-19 Capital Improvements Program.

For more information, contact the City of Dover Department of Planning and Community Development at 516-6008.