About the Neighborhood Traffic Management
Program
Goal:
The goal of the Los Angeles County Neighborhood Traffic Management Program
is to enhance and protect the quality of life throughout the County
by making neighborhoods safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, residents
living in these neighborhoods and the motoring public by altering the
behavior of motorists.
Overview
of the NTMP Process
The following shows
the process which the County will employ when inititating a new NTMP for
a specific neighborhood:
Click
here to view a detailed illustration of the NTMP Process and Timeline.
Qualifying
Criteria
Requests
for the implementation of neighborhood traffic management measures on
public streets will be considered by the DPW on a case-by-case basis for
those streets meeting all of the following criteria:
1. The street should
be primarily residential in nature with a daily traffic volume of at
least 500 vehicles but not more than 5,000 vehicles per day.
2. The County Sheriff or Fire Department or other public safety or service
agencies have not provided sufficient evidence of any major public safety
concerns regarding the neighborhood traffic management and calming measures.
3. The change in traffic flow will not result in unreasonable liability
exposure for the County of Los Angeles.
4. The requested action is authorized by legislative authority in State
law.
5. The changes in traffic flow will not divert significant amounts of
traffic to other residential streets.
6. Petition requirements. (Level 3 and Level 4 Improvements)
The following procedures
must be followed for submitting a petition for Level 3 or Level 4 measures
to the Department of Public Works:
a. The Project Engineer
will recommend and examine the technical feasibility and anticipated
impacts of the proposed neighborhood traffic management and calming
measures. This review will include items such as the Vehicle Code, State
law, the Circulation Element of the County's General Plan, the type
of road or street involved, compliance with engineering regulations,
existing traffic conditions, projected traffic conditions, the potential
for traffic diversion to adjacent streets, impacts to emergency vehicle
response rimes and the increased liability exposure for the County or
conflicts with future planned improvements.
b. The Project Engineer
will determine the boundary of the "affected area" to be petitioned.
The affected area will include but not be limited to those properties
where normal travel routes to and from the "affected area"
are to be altered by the neighborhood traffic management and calming
measures, and/or properties that are significantly impacted by traffic
that is to be diverted.
The Affected Area boundaries are developed by taking into account surrounding
arterials, physical barriers such as rivers, parks, tracks, the pattern
of impacts as identified by residents, and existing community area boundaries.
c. The petition
requesting the neighborhood traffic calming measures must be supported
by two-thirds of the total number of citizens affected by the proposed
changes in traffic flows. The citizens should include property owners,
tenants, and business owners within the affected area who might be significantly
affected by the proposed measure. Persons submitting petitions must
attempt to contact all affected parties. At a minimum, 90 percent of
all affected persons who may need to use the street(s) on a daily basis
must be contacted for the petition to be accepted by the County. This
requirement will be satisfied by signatures from 90 percent of the affected
parties indicating support or non-support for the neighborhood traffic
management and calming measures.
Click
here to view an example of a neighborhood action request form.
The following procedures
must be followed for submitting a petition for Level 3 or Level 4 measures
to the Department of Public Works:
a. The Project
Engineer will recommend and examine the technical feasibility and
anticipated impacts of the proposed neighborhood traffic management
and calming measures. This review will include items such as the Vehicle
Code, State law, the Circulation Element of the County's General Plan,
the type of road or street involved, compliance with engineering regulations,
existing traffic conditions, projected traffic conditions, the potential
for traffic diversion to adjacent streets, impacts to emergency vehicle
response rimes and the increased liability exposure for the County
or conflicts with future planned improvements.
b. The Project
Engineer will determine the boundary of the "affected area"
to be petitioned. The affected area will include but not be limited
to those properties where normal travel routes to and from the "affected
area" are to be altered by the neighborhood traffic management
and calming measures, and/or properties that are significantly impacted
by traffic that is to be diverted.
c. The petition
requesting the neighborhood traffic calming measures must be supported
by two-thirds of the total number of citizens affected by the proposed
changes in traffic flows. The citizens should include property owners,
tenants, business owners within the n affected area" who might
be significantly affected by the proposed measure. Persons submitting
petitions must attempt to contact all affected parties. At a minimum,
90 percent of all affected persons who may need to use the street(s)
on a daily basis must be contacted for the petition to be accepted
by the County. This requirement will be satisfied by signatures from
90 percent of the affected parties indicating support or non-support
for the neighborhood traffic management and calming measures.
Determining
Affected Area Boundaries
The Affected Area
boundaries are developed by taking into account surrounding arterials,
physical barriers such as rivers, parks, tracks, the pattern of impacts
as identified by residents, and existing community area boundaries.
Developing
and Conducting an Effective Community Outreach Program
Message
Development Educating Impacted Communities
The key to any Community
Outreach / Public Education Program is an understanding and appreciation
of the topic. Neighborhoods may be aware that increased traffic on residential
streets is adversely impacting their lives, but they may not know that
there are solutions available to address these problems. The challenge
is to educate communities about both the problem and possible solutions
in terms that are easily understandable, implementable and effective.
When communities recognize their role in problem solving, they are more
likely to participate in solution generating exercises, which is a key
component of community consensus building.
The first step toward
building consensus is educating impacted communities and stakeholders
about problems and their range of options. Fact sheets and /or newsletters
broadly addressing the issues and solutions should be developed and
distributed. Key topics include:
·
What is a "Neighborhood Traffic Management Plan"
· How will an effective Neighborhood Traffic Plan improve your
community?
Neighborhood
Traffic Management Planning Process
Communities and
impacted stakeholders require an established process from the outset.
The LACDPW is charged with creating and maintaining a public process
that solicits and values community input, honors timelines and individual
time constraints, and is transparent, inclusive and effective.
Once a (traffic
related) problem is defined within a community and key stakeholders
identified, it's important that the process is developed and agreed
upon by all involved parties (i.e. stakeholders, appropriate LA County
representatives and DPW staff).
The
Evaluation Process
An evaluation process
that includes appropriate stakeholders is another integral element to
the overall process. This component should also be shared at the outset
and consensus sought. This component includes:
a.
Establishing a Steering Committee
b.
Data Collection
c.
Analysis and interpretation of collected data
d.
Once data has been collected, analyzed and interpreted for the impacted
neighborhood, the community should be provided with the range of options
their associated costs, and the feasibility of implementation of each
range.
Noticing
and Conducting a Public Meeting
These meetings,
similar to the workshops previously identified, now serve the purpose
of presenting results and implementation plans to the impacted neighborhood.
These meetings should also serve to get a sense of where there may be
opposition or disagreement and attempts to address any opposition in
the implementation phase.
Scheduling
and Conducting a Community Workshop
Assuming an appropriate
level of concern regarding neighborhood traffic problems is registered,
a community workshop should be held to ensure broad-based participation
and input. The following are key elements for conducting community workshops:
·
Determine appropriate date - including day of week and time of day;
sensitivity to cultural and religious holidays.
·
Identify appropriate location - accessibility of building, availability
and safety of parking, proximity to impacted community, room amenities.
·
Develop mailing list (if mailing beyond defined impacted boundaries).
·
Identify other potential stakeholders i.e. nearby businesses, schools,
other public facilities (hospitals, parks, post offices, churches).
·
Provide proper advance notification (usually via post card and/or flyer,
10 - 15 days out).
·
Does notification need to be bi (or multi) lingual?
·
Establish and post an agenda for public meetings.
·
Identify a moderator / facilitator.
·
Prepare information packets, fact sheets and or other appropriate materials
to be distributed and / or displayed at the public meetings. This includes
at minimum providing information on the full range of traffic calming
devices with appropriate discussion re: pros and cons for each specific
tool to the targeted community sign-in sheets.
·
Prepare and distribute meeting summaries to attendees after the meeting.
Approval
Process
Once consensus has
been reached, the next phase is approval from the appropriate regulatory
bodies. These approvals require:
a.
Preparation (and sign-off) of the Final Plan
b.
Review by County Supervisorial Office and other appropriate county agencies
(and or departments i.e. LA County Sheriff, LA County Fire, MTA, Caltrans)
Implementation
Process
The final phase
of an effective process is the actual implementation of a program. Throughout
the process, neighborhoods should be aware of funding challenges and
disruptions from construction. To the extent possible, construction
mitigation measures should be a component of the implementation plan
- as well as community outreach during construction. Implementation
includes:
a. Funding Sources
b. Construction
c. Post Construction evaluation
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