The City of Auburn is dedicated to improving the quality and livability of Auburn’s residential neighborhoods. The objectives of the neighborhood traffic calming program are to:
- Improve safety for all road users, especially pedestrians and cyclists.
- Reduce speeds in neighborhoods so that most cars drive at or below the posted speed limit.
- Discourage cut-through vehicle traffic and to encourage drivers to use streets that are designed for higher traffic volumes.
- Educate residents through traffic safety awareness and outreach.
- Meet Auburn’s equity goals with a proactive approach to ensure all neighborhoods are evaluated and encourage residents to participate in the process.
In 2007, the Auburn City Council adopted the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program to assist residents and the City in developing solutions to speeding and other traffic safety concerns on residential streets. The original program was focused on responding to complaints of speeding on a residential streets. Where appropriate and desired by the residents on the street, the program would install speed cushions intended to “calm” or slow down the traffic on the street. In 2020, the program was put on hold because of budget reductions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, The City of Auburn is launching a reimagined version of the neighborhood traffic calming program. The intent of the revised program is to proactively identify and address speeding issues in a whole neighborhood instead of waiting for residents to complain about a specific location on one street in the neighborhood. Each year the City will identify a neighborhood for evaluation, study, outreach, and potential implementation of traffic calming measures. Unfortunately, this approach does mean that the program may not address all speeding concerns received from residents each year if the area of concern is outside the neighborhood being addressed in the current year. Regardless, the City will continue conducting speed studies where speeding issues are reported and the information will be provided to the Auburn Police Department for consideration in enforcement prioritization and planning and will also be utilized to help identify and prioritize neighborhoods for future years.
More about the program:
According to the Institute of Transportation Engineers, traffic calming “…reduces automobile speeds or volumes as a means of improving the quality of life in residential areas, increasing walking safety and making bicycling more comfortable.”
Auburn’s neighborhood traffic calming program is intended for residential neighborhoods. It is not intended for commercial/industrial areas or busier streets that are meant to carry more traffic.
Some examples of tools that will help the City meet the objectives:
Education:
- Informational letters or flyers
- Temporary signs for awareness
- Magazine articles and social media posts
Enforcement:
- Police Emphasis Patrols to discourage speeding
Engineering:
- If appropriate, identification, design, and implementation of physical traffic calming treatment improvements in the neighborhood, to be implemented as funding is available.
Evaluation:
- Post implementation neighborhood survey