PURPOSE

This report summarizes a meeting with Tujunga Avenue residents and interested parties held on November 29, 2006 at the Burbank Central Library.  The meeting was held to solicit comments from interested residents on the centerline delineators that were installed on Tujunga Avenue east of Sunset Canyon Drive in early November.  Meeting participants discussed the impact and desirability of the delineators and offered suggestions about how to proceed with traffic calming efforts on Tujunga Avenue.

The report also discusses traffic demand and speed data collected on Tujunga Avenue in December 2006 at the request of residents.  The data are presented to provide Council with a framework with which to characterize traffic issues on Tujunga Avenue, and to offer a measure of the need for additional traffic controls on Tujunga Avenue.

BACKGROUND

In June 2006, Council directed that traffic controls on Tujunga Avenue be modified to include stop controls, electronic speed signage, and centerline delineators.  The stop controls were installed in June 2006; and delineators, yellow in color and three feet high, were installed in the curved area of Tujunga Avenue on October 24, 2006.  The speed signs were not installed pending comment by area residents.

Installation of the centerline delineators immediately generated considerable commentary by residents, which prompted a resident meeting with Public Works staff on November 29, 2006.  A notice of the resident meeting was mailed to all 220 residents of Tujunga Avenue and Via Montana areas.  The meeting notice also included a preference form to indicate whether the delineators should remain or be removed.   The resident meeting was attended by about 25 persons, and 29 residents responded to the written inquiry about the delineators.  A total of 18 resident attendees (72 percent of those attending the meeting) voted to remove the delineators, and 19 written responses (66 percent of all written responses) also desired to have the delineators removed.  The meeting attendees and written responses represent about 24 percent of all residents of the Tujunga Avenue / Via Montana area.

A lively discussion about traffic calming ensued at the November 29 meeting.  The group initially discussed the adequacy and appropriateness of the delineators.  A majority of the residents agreed that the devices did somewhat slow traffic on Tujunga Avenue around the curves below Gibson Court.  However, problematic ancillary issues were identified that included; the delineators are ugly, they narrow the road too much, they eliminate on-street parking in some areas, and the devices add noise to the area.   Other calming options were briefly discussed, including speed regulating cameras, chokers, intersection medians, centerline barriers, and speed humps or tables.  Staff also summarized the 16 traffic calming options that had been previously identified and evaluated for Tujunga Avenue with the meeting participants.

The group was divided on the placement of the speed awareness signage.  Some felt that the extensive speed data supplied by the signage could help to organize police presence on Tujunga Avenue.  Some felt the signs would lose effectiveness after a while, and some participants felt they were planned in the wrong locations.  Staff determined that the signs should not be installed until after a neighborhood consensus has been reached on their location and use.

The meeting concluded with three main recommendations for consideration by Council.  Those recommendations are:

1. Convene a neighborhood committee to study the issues and solutions � The attendees felt a committee should be organized to discuss options for the street.  The committee should include equal representation from upper (Via Montana), mid (above Gibson Court), and lower (below Gibson Court) areas of Tujunga Avenue.  The group will look at calming options and develop recommendations for Council consideration.

2. Collect more speed data � The group felt that the traffic speed data previously collected were insufficient to determine the effectiveness of the delineators, and additional data are needed, particularly for weekend traffic.  Staff agreed to collect additional traffic data through mechanical counting devices and the police speed trailer (if needed).  That data were collected during the first week of December 2006 and are summarized in this report.

3. Remove the delineators � The group was divided on complete removal of the delineators versus removal only of the post component.  Staff and the participants agreed to leave the delineators in place until additional speed and volume data were collected.  The posts were removed by December 8, 2006, but the delineator bases were left in place until the traffic   can be evaluated.

ANALYSIS

Staff collected traffic data on Tujunga Avenue during the first week of December.  Traffic volume and speed data were collected between Friday, December 1, 2006, and Thursday, December 7, 2006, and these data were compared to data collected in 2004 and 2005 in the same areas on Tujunga Avenue.  Traffic data on Friday, December 1, and on Thursday, December 7, were not collected for a full day, so these data are not discussed.

The data were collected at three locations on Tujunga Avenue, as shown on Attachment 1; near 1608 Camino de Villas, near 1241 Tujunga Avenue (south of Gibson Court), and near 1122 Tujunga Avenue (east of Sunset Canyon Drive).  These three locations were selected as representative of traffic demand on the street, and data were collected at these same three locations in previous years.  The data were collected on straight sections of Tujunga Avenue since the electronic count devices (both radar and mechanical) will not accurately measure traffic speed or volume on tight curves as are on Tujunga Avenue.

Traffic Demand

Complete traffic demand data from Saturday to Wednesday are shown in Attachment 2 for westbound traffic and in Attachment 3 for eastbound traffic.  The hourly variation in traffic demand over the five-day count period is shown in Attachment 4.  Daily traffic demand varied from about 650 vehicles per day near Sunset Canyon Drive to 350 vehicles per day on Camino de Villas.  The maximum hourly travel demand was 45 vehicles per hour (slightly less than one per minute).

Traffic count data collected in 2004, 2005, and 2006 (before installation of the delineators) were compared to the 2006 post delineator data.  Some variation in traffic demand occurred from installation of the devices, particularly in the eastbound (uphill) direction.

The following observations are derived from the traffic volume information:

1. Daily Variation � Daily traffic demand after delineator installation varied less than ten (10) percent over the five full count days for either direction of travel demand.  The highest travel days were Saturday (eastbound) and Sunday (westbound), and lowest travel days were Sunday (eastbound) and Tuesday (westbound).  The data indicated that weekends do not have a significantly greater volume of traffic that would indicate a high number of visitors or sightseers to the area.

2. Directional Variation � After delineator installation, westbound traffic was about 40 vehicles per day higher than eastbound traffic for all three count locations during all count days.  The data suggest that some residents of the Via Montana area tend to use Country Club Drive to exit their street but return by Tujunga Avenue.

3. Hourly Traffic Demand � Attachment 4 illustrates that some variation in hourly traffic demand occurred during the five-day study period, but the variation was within the expected deviation from the norm.  The variance from the average hourly traffic demand was generally less than ten (10) vehicles per hour.  This information also suggested that the area does not have a significant number of sightseers during weekend days.

4. Historical Perspective � The traffic demand on Tujunga Avenue near Gibson Court was used as a gauge of the change in demand over the last several years.  In 2004, prior to installation of any traffic control devices, the approximate daily traffic demand on Tujunga Avenue was slightly less than 600 vehicles per day.  In 2005, after signing and striping modifications, the demand was measured at about 520 daily vehicles, and in 2006 (prior to the delineators), the demand was 550 daily vehicles.  After installation of the delineators, the demand was measured at 480 daily vehicles.  Thus, the devices installed on Tujunga Avenue have caused a slight diversion of traffic from Tujunga Avenue to Country Club Drive.  Country Club Drive carries about 1,700 vehicles each day, about three times as much traffic as Tujunga Avenue.  The historical data further suggested that traffic on Tujunga Avenue originates from the surrounding neighborhoods, and additional significant traffic diversion to the only other access to the neighborhood (Country Club Drive) is unlikely.

Traffic Speeds

Traffic speeds were mechanically counted at three locations on Tujunga Avenue, and additional traffic speed information was collected with a radar speed trailer.  The count location on Camino de Villas was about half way between Via Montana and Tujunga Avenue, 1241 Tujunga Avenue was about 100 feet west of Gibson Court, and 1122 Tujunga Avenue was about 50 feet west of the end of the delineators and 200 feet east of Sunset Canyon Drive.  The following conclusions result from those data:

1. Daily Variation � The 85^th percentile speeds during all days of the week and all locations on Tujunga Avenue were about 25.8 MPH, except westbound near 1122 Tujunga Avenue, which was about 24.9 MPH.  The lack of variation in vehicle speeds between weekdays and weekends at the count locations suggests that vehicle speeding was not a larger problem on weekends.  The police speed trailer was deployed on Tujunga Avenue near 1145 Tujunga Avenue in October, just before the delineators were installed.  The device recorded an 85^th percentile speed of 24 MPH, with an average speed of 20 MPH, consistent with the mechanical data.

2. Directional Variation � The data showed no variation in uphill and downhill speeds on Tujunga Avenue.

3. Hourly Speed Variation � Excessive traffic speeds (greater than 35 MPH) were about 1.2 percent of the total traffic at 1122 Tujunga Avenue, less than 0.2 percent at 1241 Tujunga Avenue and there were no vehicles exceeding 35 MPH at 1608 Camino de Villas.  The data showed no predominance of excessive speeds during any day of the week or any time period of any day.  The distribution of excessive traffic speeds was random.

4. Historical Perspective � Traffic speeds on the lower portion of Tujunga Avenue have significantly changed with the installation of the traffic devices in comparison to speeds clocked in 2004.  The 85^th percentile speeds on Tujunga Avenue near Sunset Canyon Drive, in the westbound direction, declined from 30 MPH in 2004 to 24.9 MPH (a 20 percent reduction); and in the eastbound direction, from 33 MPH in 2004 to 25.5 MPH (a reduction of 29 percent).  Near Camino de Villas, eastbound traffic speeds increased from 23 MPH in 2004 to 25.6 MPH (an increase of ten (10) percent), and westbound speeds increased from 25 MPH to 25.8 MPH (an increase of three (3) percent).

RECOMMENDATION

The meeting participants desire to have calming options discussed in more detail, and they recommend a neighborhood committee be convened to explore the options.  Other recommendations from the meeting have been implemented by staff.  Staff seeks further direction from Council on the traffic calming efforts on Tujunga Avenue.

Attachments:

1. Traffic Count Locations

2. Eastbound traffic demand

3. Westbound traffic demand

4. Variation in Hourly Traffic Volume at 1241 Tujunga Avenue

5. 85^th Percentile Speed Eastbound on Tujunga Avenue

6. 85^th Percentile Speed Westbound on Tujunga Avenue

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