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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 7.2 Traffic Safety Grant IOU V 1 V CITY OF DUBLIN AGENDA STATEMENT MEETING DATE: March 28 , 1983 SUBJECT State Office of Traffic Safety Grant EXHIBITS ATTACHED Grant Application RECOMMENDATION C\' Pttaff recommends Council concurrence on submittal of grant application. FINANCIAL STATEMENT: OTS will fund 100% of the programs ; City would incur on-going maintenance costs of equipment in future years . DESCRIPTION Each year the State Office of Traffic Safety approves grants to aid cities and counties to start up safety programs . These programs , if approved, will aid Staff in the identification of traffic problems and allow preventative safety measures to be taken. Approval by the Office of Traffic Safety does not commit the City to go through with the program nor preclude amendments to the program, if deemed necessary. The program timing begins with April lst application submittals for the following October funding. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- COPIES TO: ITEM NO. CITY OF DUBLIN P.O. Box 2340 Dublin, CA 94568 (415) 829-4600 March 23, 1983 Mrs. Patricia A. Hill , Regional Coordinator Office of Traffic Safety 7000 Franklin Blvd. Suite 330 Sacramento, CA 95823 Dear Mrs. Hill : This is to constitute the memorandum proposal for the City of Dublin to apply for a grant from the Office of Traffic Safety. The grant request is for a comprehensive traffic engineering evaluation. 1. Statement of the Problem The basic problem to be addressed by this project is the continuing traffic accident problem in the City of Dublin. The accident problem is expressed in terms of reported traffic accidents , complaints from citizens regarding hazardous locations, and increased congestion within the City. The City of Dublin was incorporated in 1982 . Prior to that time the Dublin area was under the jurisdiction of the County of Alameda. The County of Alameda provided engineering services to the Dublin area with accident investigation and traffic enforcement provided by the California Highway Patrol . Dublin was incorporated in order to establish more local control and to increase the level of service to the citizenry. The City of Dublin has an area of approximately 4 square miles, has 46 maintained street miles and a population of 13,500. Since incorporation , the City has begun to acquire a combination of staff and consulting services to perform its responsibilities. The City has a full -time City Manager and a Planning Director and secretarial staffs. Police services are provided the Alameda County Sheriff' s Office on a contract basis. The Dublin Police Force consists of a total of 20 uniformed officers and support personnel . The City has retained the services of a consultant engineering firm to provide City engineering services. A City Engineer has been designated. A separate firm provides traffic engineering services on a contract basis to the City, on an "as needed" basis. The City has minimal traffic records, which consist almost entirely of previous data collected by the County of Alameda. Mrs. Patricia A. Hill -2- March 23, 1983 In addition to the overall accident problem described earlier, a major problem is the lack of overall organization of traffic safety activities within the City due to its newly incorporated status. The City needs to have a comprehensive traffic engineering study undertaken to serve as a basis for ongoing and City-supplied traffic safety activities. 2. Project Objectives a. To reduce traffic accidents within the City of Dublin by approximately 20 percent. We feel this can be accomplished through the institution of a comprehensive traffic engineering study within the City. b. Reduce congestion within the City. This will be a by-product of the short-term traffic accident reduction effort and a direct result of long-term traffic studies for a circulation network for the City. It is believed that these objectives can be accomplished through the obtaining of a grant from the Office of Traffic Safety in the category of comprehensive traffic engineering study. 3. Proposed Solution The proposed solution is to conduct a comprehensive city-wide traffic engineering study through the use of an OTS grant. The study and preparation of a final report would be done by a qualified traffic engineering consultant. The elements of the study would be as follows: a. A city-wide inventory of all traffic control devices, in order to determine compliance with the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices , to determine traffic control devices in need of modification, replacement, maintenance and to establish a system for periodic maintenance of all control devices. An evaluation of all traffic signals would be included in this inventory. The City would also like to establish an on-going computerized traffic control record system and proposes to purchase a micro-computer with its grant application and purchase available software to establish an on-going control device inventory. b. A survey of high accident locations within the City. The location of the approximate 15 highest traffic accident locations within the City would be determined and comprehensive surveys of these locations would be made. Recommendations would be in the form of an improved signing, markings , channelization , or other traffic engineering techniques. As a part of the high accident location study, a accident spot map would be prepared by the consultant for continuous updating in the future by City staff. Collision diagrams of high accident locations would also be prepared as a part of this study. Mrs. Patricia A. Hill -3- March 23, 1983 c. Establish upgraded speed limits on all collector and arterial streets within the City. Radar speed surveys would be conducted on all streets and speed limits would be recommended for adoption by the Dublin City Council . Following institution of the new speed limits, the City of Dublin would review the need for and be eligible to use radar in its speed enforcement. Two radar sets may be purchased as a part of the grant application for use by the Police Department if determined necessary by the City Traffic Engineer, Police Department and City Council . d. Evaluate present and future traffic conditions in the City. The consultant would obtain up-to-date traffic counts on all major streets within the City and would make projections for future traffic volumes on all major streets. This will allow the City of Dublin to plan all future streets so as to provide adequate capacity and to optimize the safety of each street. 4. Time Required It is estimated that the total time required to complete this project will be approximately twelve months. Actual work by consultants during this time period would be accomplished within an approximate six to eight month period. The remaining time would be devoted to consultant selection, contract execution, the actual conduct of the study and the evaluation of the project itself. 5. Cost Estimates It is estimated that the total cost of the project would be a maximum of approximately $35,000. The work can be completed within a one-year period. If there are any questions about this memorandum proposal, please contact this office. Sincerely, Richard C. Ambrose City Manager