ITD Road Safety Audit meeting

Last week, the Idaho Transportation Department conducted a Road Safety Audit on the city of Soda Springs.  Mayor Gritton, who initiated the study, was joined by public officials and community representatives for the presentation of the audit by ITD’s Kelley Campbell. 

On Tuesday, representatives of various groups within the city, including city officials and law enforcement, kicked off the meeting by sharing their general concerns and observations about the roads in town.

This was followed by a field review and examination of various data connected to road safety, such as crashes, speed studies, ADT, turning movements, etc.

A nighttime field review was conducted to observe the conditions in the dark.

On Wednesday, ITD held what was essentially a debrief and findings presentation.  Officials from the prior day gathered in the council room for the presentation.

Kelly Campbell was joined by a team from ITD, as well as Sicog.

Campbell noted that it was “great that you asked for the survey,” as she indicated she would like to see more cities do the same.

The audit was conducted around the main arteries of the downtown area for the most part, and looked for compliance to existing laws and factors that contribute to or detract from safety on the roadways.  

The audit noted the following as positive: A majority of the signs were in good shape, lighting along the highways was adequate, crosswalks were marked, sidewalks were in place on the overpass, buckle up signs under many stop signs were observed, RRFB (flashing lights) on some crosswalks were positives, flashing signal ahead sign was a good measure, “watch for pedestrian” signs on 34 were helpful, as were flashing school crossing signs and crossing guards at elementary.

Some of the issues that could be improved included: Snow piled up on sidewalks, especially when it’s on a path to the school; ADA ramps that did not go directly to the crosswalk; a warning signal ahead sign was not visible at night; lane markings that are hard to see in both day and night conditions; lack of fog line/edge delineation; no indication if street parking is allowed; no arrows in TWLT (left turn in intersection) lanes; the No U turn signs are all faded; trash cans are kept on sidewalk; overall lack of sidewalks; lack of bike symbols in bike lane; potential mismatched speed on highway through town.

ITD then went through a virtual “tour” of the town, noting some of the issues that had stood out to the audit group in specific locations, such as 3rd East and US 30 (where sidewalk issues were noted, as were faded lane markings, issues with the lights flashing consistently, missing School Zone signs, etc.).

At US 30 and Main St, the push button not working easily was noted as was the pilot light not staying on as it should.  The sidewalk was also noted to be broken up, and the pole in the way of pedestrian ramp.

At US 30 and 1st E, it was noted that the RRFB does not flash long enough for walking across street, and the light indicator is not coming on to show pedestrians that the signal is on.

At US 34 Hooper and 3rd E, the arms for traffic light don’t line with the lanes, and there are no sidewalks.  The crest of hill blocks view of crosswalk, and there are no sidewalks on some of the side streets, meaning children were walking in road because of snowy sidewalks. 

ITD presented a number of short term ideas for the city to consider for safety improvement, including restripe roadways, evaluating and replacing non-retroreflective signs (no Uturn, center lane turn sign, etc), add TWLT arrows at intersections, adjusting RRFB flashing time to meet the guidance, establishing MOUs or Cooperative agreement with businesses for snow removal, enhancing patrols during school drop off and pickup times, checking all push buttons on signals to ensure they are working properly and that the pilot light are staying on during walk indicators.  

Campbel recommended potentially adding a bike line and striping for on-street parking, and using high visibility crosswalk markings. “You can never not improve things when it comes to safety, and to prevent things in the future,” she said.

As has been mentioned in several discussions around the county, she noted that “When you come into Lava they have radar feedback signs, and we think it might be a good idea to do that here.  A lot of people just don’t realize what speed they are going.  When I see a sign like this, it instantly reminds me.”  The Sheriff’s office has signs of that nature, and one has been used coming into Bancroft to good effect, at least anecdotally.

After complimenting the lunch at Main Street, she recommended replacing the RRFB by stop sign on E 2st Street.  “We noticed this when we came out of Main Street Diner—two days in a row because the food was so good.  I was really impressed with them.  But we recommend that you check the signal timings on all the crossing flashers.”

She noted that the School Zone signs need to be updated to the most current ones. 

On a longer timeline, ITD recommended evaluating vision and sight triangles at all intersections, establishing no parking zones at the intersections based on results of study, conducting a study to determine placement of school zone signs for middle and elementary, re-evaluating the location of activities at park so people are more willing to park in lot and not street.

In the long term, ITD recommended establishing a truck route to remove most commercial truck traffic through town, finding ways to reroute traffic out of the town.  Campbell noted that the percentage of Commercial crashes is higher than the state averages.

She also suggested a study to determine if HAWKs should be installed at uncontrolled intersections or at mid block.  A HAWK is a mandatory red light that is triggered by a ped--They would have to trench across the roadway to lay conduits.

Campbell then discussed some of the grant and funding possibilities for the city, and thanked the officials for their efforts.

“I wanted to specifically thank the mayor for getting this started, Chief Golightly—thanks for those stats—and the principal, Rod Worthington—you’re lucky to have him over there.  He was very helpful.”

Asked what the city should focus on, Campbell said “I don’t know if I could personally say one thing—overall, you’re doing a good job.  There’s just some things that could be even better. Your crash data doesn’t indicate that you have a very serious problem either.  Kudos to you guys.  You’re doing a very good job, but you could still do better.”