Barcroft Application for Traffic Calming
Submitted Monday, October 29, 2001
Cover letter
October 30, 2001
Neighborhood Traffic Calming Committee
2100 Clarendon Boulevard
Arlington, Virginia 22201
Dear Members of the NTCC:
The Barcroft Neighborhood hereby submits its Traffic Calming Application.
As if to underscore its need, there was an accident in the early hours of this morning on South Buchanan Street near the intersection with 7th Street South. This serves as yet another alert to us all.
We appreciate this opportunity to apply six years of traffic calming work within our neighborhood, thanks to this positive approach provided by County initiative and your creativity. We look forward to the full development of this plan in the near future.
Sincerely,
Elaine G. Squeri
Chair, Barcroft Traffic Committee
Table of Contents
Items in bold face are included on this page
1. Purpose of Application and location of project
2. Background
a. Traffic calming effort in Barcroft since 1995
b. Traffic counts 1999/2000
c. Request for Traffic Calming, January 2000 - page one
3. Working Group Members
4. Measures recommended by Working Group and Petitioned of Neighborhood
5. Letters of Support
a. BSCL - October 4, 2001, monthly meeting and vote of support
b. PTA President, Eileen Putnam - October 15, 2001
c. Barcroft School Principal, Miriam Hughey-Guy
6. Petition
a. DPW Map of Area of Impact
b. Information sheets for each area: green, blue, white
c. Barcroft Petition Tally
d. All Petition sheets
7. Costs (County DPW Staff)
Barcroft Traffic Calming Request
What we want: Speed at 25mph and volume appropriate to a neighborhood street, not a connector between arterials, to result in quiet residential streets.
What we have: Data attached
What we have done: Formed a neighborhood Traffic Committee;
- Conducted a neighborhood Survey re: Traffic concerns - 300 responses and 79% cited speed as number one problem;
- Schedule the Smart Set to show speeds;
- Requested DPW Traffic Count to confirm or refute perceptions of speed and volume - most were confirmed
- Use the Radar Unit for over 50 hours to alert drivers and to refine residents' perceptions of actual speed;
- Ask for police enforcement at specific sites;
- Invited the County Board Walk to the neighborh'd;
- Participate in County forums to change traffic conditions;
- Asked for Traffic Calming measures.
What we ask:
- Install the measures on Wakefield, Pershing and Buchanan as listed and petitioned.
- Complete Traffic Counts on first three blocks of Pershing Drive,
between the curve above second street and access road.
- Report on Cut-Through Study and assist an appropriate plan.
- Schedule the follow-up traffic counts integral to the TC Plan to gauge effectiveness of measures and degree of diversion.
A resident of 4th Street asked the BSCL at the September Meeting to endorse his statement and it did: "The Barcroft community is concerned about the potential impact of traffic calming measures on streets not directly addressed in this proposed plan. Streets near Wakefield, Buchanan and Pershing could well see increased traffic seeking to avoid the proposed speed humps and traffic circles. The Barcroft community considers this a significant issue, and will support short and long term measures to mitigate this impact."
Barcraft Traffic Counts
Street Location Vehicles 85th% NTCC 1998 Other
& Date per Day speed Priority Count
(vpd) Points
South N.of 3rd 1845 31 44 1727 Fire route
Abingdon 12/2/99 Access for
181 homes
3rd St. E.of Abingdon 967 34 50 881
12/2/99
4th St. E.of Ab 538 38 45 705
5/4/00
Buchanan S.of 9th 3208 27/29 112 1788* Fire Route
5/4/00 Community House
Woman's Club
S.of 8th 2702 33/29
5/4/00
N.of 7th 2006 35
7/28/00
Pershing N.of 4th 1574 30 56 1269 One street
5/4/00 with Buchanan,
Fire Route.
N.of 3rd TO BE COUNTED FALL 2001
N.of 90 degree bend TO BE COUNTED FALL 2001
1st block, N of 1st TO BE COUNTED FALL 2001
Wake- N.of 8th Rd 1737 31/29 78 1470 Bus rte;schools;
field 5/4/00 church
S.of 6th 1445 30/31
5/4/00
Taylor S.of 8th 1282 27/31 49 church;school
5/4/00 park
8th W.of GMason 2066 26/23 N/A
5/4/00
8th W.of Taylor 1184 29/28 N/A
5/4/00
6th W.of Taylor 347 30/22 N/A
5/4/00
4th W.of GMason 1414 27/25 N/A
6/23/00
Notes:
* no specific location listed
speed/speed two speeds, one from each direction,
either north or eastbound, or south or westbound direction
Barcroft Traffic Calming Petition: Results
Note on color codes:
Green area voted on Buchanan measures only
White area voted on Wakefield measures only
Blue area voted on both, on separate petitions.
This table is also available as a .pdf file.
Green Area of Impact--Buchanan Only
Street Occupied No
Homes Yes % No Abstain Response
Persh. 18 9 50% 5 - 4
Court
Persh. 29 25 86% 3 - 1 (+3 Vacant)
Drive
110-413
Buchanan
605-900 29 21 72% 1 - 6 (+Woman's
Club)
2nd St 29 25 86% 2 - 2
3rd St 29 25 86% 0 2 2
4th St 26 25 96% 1 - 2 vacant
E.of Ab.
4th St 22 15 68% 1 - 6
E.of Wake.
7th St 7 7 100% - - -
8th St 11 11 100% - - -
8th Rd 14 10 71% - 1 3
9th St 13 9 69% 2 - 2
Sub Total 227 182 80% 15 3 26 +3 vacant
+Woman's Club
White Area of Impact: Voted on Wakefield measures only.
Block from Wakefield to Taylor on the numbered streets.
Street Occupied No
Homes Yes % No Abstain Response
Wakefield 15 8 53% 3 1 3
602-935
6th St 22 17 77% 3 1 2
8th St 22 20 91% 2 - -
9th St 13 9 69% - - 3 (+1 vacant)
S.Utah 7 3 43% - 4
Sub-Total 79 57 72% 8 2 12 (+1 vacant)
Totals 486 381 78% 39 9 56
All Streets
All Votes
Note: Residents in the Blue area of impact voted on
measures for both Wakefield and Buchanan. They voted
on each street, using two different petitions.
Barcroft Traffic Calming
Working GroupSummer/Fall 2001
Pat Williamson, Mark Wigfield, Eric Harold, David Michaelson, Elaine G. Squeri, Andrea Anderson, Tom Fitchett, Lori Fitchett, Cathy Moreno, Keith Fred, Steven Reiss, Scott Royal, Kenny Harrell, Alice Eichers, Angelo Iofredda, Randy Swart
This was our earlier request:
BARCROFT (BSCL) REQUEST
FOR TRAFFIC CALMING
January 25, 2001 - Revised July 9, 2001
Name of Requesters:
Barcroft School & Civic League (BSCL)
Mark Wigfield, President
Resident since 1993
Elaine G. Squeri, Barcroft Traffic Committee Chair
Resident since June 4, 1994
David Michaelson, Barcroft NCAC Representative
Resident since 1987
Description of Problem:
Speed on 7 streets and misuse of a neighborhood minor as a principal (table below).
Perceptions of high speed and increased cut-through traffic resulted in a Traffic Committee being formed here in 1996. The Committee conducted a Survey in 1997 to determine the extent of these perceptions. Of about 300 respondents, 79% affirmed problems, citing speeding as the number one issue. Other problems included increased traffic volume, noise including from car radios, disregard of stop signs within the neighborhood and of traffic lights both on George Mason Drive and on Arlington Boulevard at Henderson Road, and an increase in truck traffic, County and commercial. (Copy of Survey attached.)
Our four north/south streets, Abingdon, Buchanan/Pershing, Taylor, and Wakefield are conduits from Columbia Pike to George Mason Drive. They are used to avoid traffic lights on Columbia Pike and as a short-cut to Arlington Boulevard. Buchanan/Pershing is a neighborhood principal which explains the volume but not the speed; we consider them one street as they are continuous and a Fire/Emergency Route. Abingdon, also a Fire/Emergency Route, is not a principal street by Master Plan designation but has high volume; counts have increased from 1351 to 1727 in 1998 to 1845 in 2000.
Arlington County August 2000 traffic counts confirm that Barcroft indeed does have a
traffic problem, even with drivers slowing down, noticing the counting device stretched across the pavement. This summary table includes corrected vpd data; detailed table next page.
Street Location Vehicles/Day 85th Priority
percentile Points
speed
Buchanan/ N.of 7th 3208-1574 35 112
Pershing
N.of 4th 33 56
Wakefield N.of 8th Rd 1445-1737 31 78
3rd E.of Abingdon 967 34 50
Taylor S.of 8th 1282 31 49
4th E.of Abingdon 538 38 45
Abingdon N.of 3rd 1845 31 44
6th W.of Taylor 188 30 26
This page was last revised on: November 12, 2001.
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