Osh Streets: Slower, Smaller, Safer

With two young children under the age of 3, I find the cars on my street that cruise by extremely fast to be upsetting, frustrating, and annoying. So, hopefully everyone signs up for this, and we crack down on idiot drivers:

Speed Watch is a program where trained volunteers use a radar gun to document speeding vehicles. Speed Watch activities are between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. The radar logs are then turned to the police department. The registered owners of those vehicles are sent a courtesy letter reminding them to slow down.

The Oshkosh Police Department has run the program with Police Explorers and Oshkosh School District volunteers for the last two years. The department is expanding the program and is looking for citizen volunteers to run radar.

Some of the qualifications are as follows: You must be at least 18 years of age or older and pass a background check, you must attend Speed Watch training; radar will be run in your neighborhood or those areas deemed by the department as areas where speeding occurs and extra enforcement is needed.

Speed Watch training will be held on Monday May 19, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. The session will last 1 to 2 hours depending on class size. Presumably the training will take place at the OPD, 420 Jackson St, Oshkosh.

Make sure that when you sign up to be a Speed Watch volunteer that you sign up with a buddy as it takes 2 to run Speed Watch, one to run radar and one to do the radar log.

How do you become a Speed Watch volunteer? First fill out a Volunteer application which can be found either online at www.oshkoshpd.com or pick one up in the Oshkosh Police Department lobby. Then turn it in to:
Sgt. Steve Sagmeister – Speed Watch Oshkosh Police Department P.O. 1130Oshkosh WI 54903. If have any questions, feel free to contact Sgt. Steve Sagmeister at 236-5742 or email at ssagmeister@ci.oshkosh.wi.us.


So, what else could be done in addition to this program to slow traffic and make our neighborhood streets friendly and safe? Smaller street widths. The expansive residential road systems are not necessary, if the intent is residential driving, bicycling, and general residential movement. The wider roads promote faster and less safe driving, reduction of green space which affects water runoff and pavement heat absorption, and neighborhood distance.

With safety being the most important issue, Community By Design states it well (pic below shows wide-left vs livable-right street):

It has become common practice to implement standards similar to those used for highways to design and build our residential streets. Using highway standards in a residential setting increases driving speed. Faster speeds increase danger by intensifying impact. The harder a person is hit, the more likely it is that he/she will be seriously hurt or killed. In addition, the faster a vehicle is moving, the greater the distance it needs to stop. Therefore, at higher speeds, a driver is less likely to be able to avoid a serious accident.

Streets in residential neighborhoods should be designed with the understanding that pedestrians and bicyclists as well as automobiles use them. Thus, vehicular speeds must be decreased to minimize the likelihood and severity of pedestrian/bicycle and automobile conflict. However, merely posting a residential street with low speed limits does little to insure that vehicles will travel at safe speeds.

When it comes to residential streets, narrower streets are better. Narrow streets slow traffic by increasing drivers’ perception of impediments to motion. If a driver perceives more obstructions, he/she is more likely to drive at slower speeds to avoid potential conflicts. The American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) asserts in, A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets: 2001, that residential streets are typically associated with short trips and are commonly used as a means of accessing property, so there is no need for high-speed travel.

Wide residential streets contribute to the number of automobile accidents. Swift & Associates conducted a study entitled, Residential Street Typology and Injury Accident Frequency (March 31, 1998), that looked at over 20,000 accidents in the City of Longmont, Colorado. According to that study: “…The most significant relationship to injury accidents were found to be street width and street curvature. The analysis illustrates that as street width widens, accidents per mile per year increase exponentially, and the safest residential street width is 24 feet (curb face).” Narrower roads decrease the likelihood of automobile related accidents. Furthermore, according to the Swift & Associates study: “…Since municipal code generally mandates a 36 foot wide residential street (planned unit development may be an exception), the results from this study indicate that current street design standards are directly contributing to automobile accidents.”

Not only do excessively wide residential streets contribute to the number of accidents, they also add to the severity of accidents. Wide residential streets encourage speeding and in doing so, increase the potential severity of accidents. According to an article by John Anderson entitled, “Framing the Debate on Streets and Public Safety” (New Urban News, July/August 2000): “…wide streets encourage speeding and increase the risk of traffic accident injuries and fatalities.”

Mary Stalker, John Anderson, and Tom DiGiovanni do a great job of explaining the correlations between road width, traffic speed and the severity of injury in the event of an accident. In their article entitled, “Streets and Fire Trucks: Designing Streets for Emergency Response and Neighborhood Safety” (New Urbanism: Comprehensive Report & Best Practices Guide, 2001), they state the following:

“A 24-26 ft. (curb-to-curb) street with parking both sides is considered ideal for walkable streets because it slows traffic (traffic calming through street geometry). The wider the street, the more likely cars are to speed—and with faster speeds, accidents become more likely, and more deadly (pedestrians hit by vehicle traveling 15 mph have a 96 percent chance of survival; at 40 mph, survival chance drops to 17 percent). Walkers feel most comfortable when vehicle speeds are kept to 10-25 mph, because slower traffic means safer streets!”

I think that exceptions should be made for residential areas which serve as bus lanes, as this can potentially provide a safe, environmentally friendly, and affordable avenue of transportation for community members.