The City of Edmonds is requesting public input on its 2025 Traffic Calming Program, with forms due March 28. The program has a budget of $80,000 to address speeding concerns and reduce cut-through traffic on streets where a problem can be documented.
The program consists of a three-phase process:
– petition and review for qualification
– education/enforcement
– possible installation of traffic calming devices
For a location to be considered in the 2025 Traffic Calming Program, both a citizen action request and neighborhood petition form need to be submitted to the city. The petition form must have supporting signatures from at least eight different households within the neighborhood.
Both forms can be found at the city website.
City staff will evaluate each petition based on a set of criteria and determine if it qualifies for the traffic calming program. Projects deemed qualified will be prioritized and pursued based on available funding.
In past years, the program has funded the installation of speed radar feedback signs, speed tables, regulatory/advisory roadway signs and pavement markings. Alternative solutions may be considered depending on location and the traffic concern.
For your street to be considered for this program, submit the forms by March 28, 2025 to Bertrand Hauss, Transportation Engineer, either by email to transportation@edmondswa.gov or mail to:
Edmonds City Hall
Attn: Engineering Division/Mr. Bertrand Hauss
121 5th Ave. N.
Edmonds WA 98020
For information about this project in another language, you may request, free of charge, language assistance services by contacting Transportation Engineer Bertrand Hauss at 425-771-0220 or bertrand.hauss@edmondswa.gov.
The City is not asking for input. It’s asking for participation in a flawed system. I wish the city would consider a different approach. First, requiring a person to solicit signatures from neighbors demands that an individual have the political, social, and personal wherewithal to do so. One may not necessarily get along with neighbors. One may not necessarily feel optimized to go knocking on doors. One may be a relative newcomer and not know the neighbors. Surely City Officials already know of problems that exist and persist whether or not someone has been able to gather signatures. Furthermore, maybe a person has noted a traffic problem but does not live in that immediate area. I have almost been hit four times in the last year while walking in Edmonds, none of the incidents in my immediate neighborhood. How can people go about gathering signatures from “neighbors” when they don’t live there? Rather, or in addition, I think Edmonds residents should be able to report an issue and then objective standards or a rubric of some kind used to determine if the problem warrants “calming,” along with careful observation by traffic professionals like engineers and police. I can’t think of any other situation where remediation of an objective problem requires the gathering of 8 signatures.
Vince,
Excellent points. The issues you’ve raised are valid, ongoing through the history of the program, and pose questions about the viability of the Traffic Calming program. You may be interested in how traffic calming dollars were used by our Mayor/administration in 2014.
https://myedmondsnews.com/2014/08/commentary-playing-calvinball-traffic-calming-dollars/