07/18/2000 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 7/18/2000 agreement between the committee members and other present Council members that this ~,,, unique situation is dangerous and needs to be improved. Some of the unique factors include the large volume of traffic, the unnoticed entrance to the park, mid-block location of the crosswalk, 35 mph speed that is routinely ignored and the fact that Clague Road links I-90 to I-480 drawing a large number of non-local or unfamiliar with the area vehicle traffic. Criticism of the existing situation resulted in several recommendations to help correct the problem. A recommendation was made that police officers cite violators under existing law referred to at the last Council meeting by the Law Director. A memo was sent to Safety Director Jenkins requesting that he look into this problem with possible use of our STOP program. Mr. Griffith questioned three other recommendations that were discussed. The issues, which have been forwarded to the Law Department for review are: (1) Can the word "Stop" be used instead of "Yield" on signage? (2) Can the lettering of the overhead sign be red instead of yellow? (3) Can the flashing yellow lights be converted to red flashing lights? Other recommendations include painting a stop bar on either side of the crosswalk indicating a safe distance at which vehicular traffic should stop, painting a wider crosswalk, possibly using diagonal lines in the crosswalk, possibly using yellow to highlight the crosswalk, additional approach signage with better wording connected to flashers as on school zone signs, and brighter coloring like the lime green that is currently being used in other areas. Also discussed was a change of the visor around the existing flasher so that pedestrians can look up and see whether the flasher, timed for about 20 seconds, is flashing prior to crossing. Discussed, but probably not applicable, is a placement of a speed bump or road grooving. Mrs. Weir then asked that any improvements made at Clague also be made at Canterbury as she felt that they collectively would improve the situation. It was noted that the unique nature of these two locations require that we do more than bare minimum, that we go the extra length prior to a tragedy. While much of the recent media attention about pedestrian tragedies has been reactive, we are looking at this proactively. The traffic engineer was asked to look into the aforementioned suggestions, prepare a plan and return to the next Transportation Committee to discuss this issue. Mr. O'Grady commented that, although he was unable to attend the meeting, he did provide a memo to all members of Council and to the Mayor with regard to this question. He commends the work of the committee. However, he would say that we should be very cautious to say that these are two unique crossings in the City of North Olmsted and that we shouldn't consider others. He thinks there are many others. Any time you have a crossing that is in the vicinity of a school, you have exactly this situation. On Butternut Ridge Road, you have a high volume of traffic. On Butternut Ridge Road, you have an entry to a school that's not well marked. It can't be seen clearly as you come down the highway. We have many intersections where children are at risk. Let's look at what we can do for all of them and let's not limit it just to these two. Let's make sure that we are not doing the minimum, but we are doing what is right. What is right, in addition to providing the proper markings for these crosswalks, is to increase enforcement at crosswalks. That will be enforcement at every traffic signal that is in the city where people roll pass the stop line and stop astride the crosswalk so the children on bicycles or other pedestrians have to walk around them. Let's increase enforcement and make sure these crosswalks are properly marked. Councilman Miller said by no means did he say 6