Policy statement

1   The City is committed to the roadway safety for all users.

Purpose of this policy

2   The purpose of this policy is to establish a procedure for determining the appropriateness of installing a traffic calming device in a location and allocating financial resources to the implementation of traffic calming device plans.

Application

3   (1) This policy applies to local roads, elementary school zones and laneways.

(2) This policy does not apply to arterial roads, collector roads or industrial roads.

Interpretation

4   The Interpretation Bylaw applies to this policy.

Definitions

5   In this policy:

"arterial road" has the same meaning as prescribed in the Official Community Plan;

"collector road" means a road identified as a collector road in the Official Community Plan or Transportation and Transit Master Plan;

"elementary school zone" means the roadway adjacent to an elementary school which has a speed limit of 30 km/hr;

"emergency services" means fire, police or ambulance services, and includes all vehicles driven by these services;

"engineer" has the same meaning as in the Street and Traffic Bylaw;

"industrial road" means a road identified as an industrial road in the Official Community Plan or Transportation and Transit Master Plan;

"laneway" means a road identified as a laneway in the Official Community Plan or Transportation and Transit Master Plan;

"local road" means a road identified as a local road in the Official Community Plan or Transportation and Transit Master Plan;

"operational service" means a vehicle owned or operated by

(a) the City, or

(b) a designated contractor

for the purpose of maintaining public infrastructure;

"peak hour" means the series of 4 consecutive 15-minute intervals in a given day that a roadway experiences the highest volume;

"requestor" means the person who requests the installation of a traffic calming device;

"resident lead" means the requestor, or a person who is designated as such by the requestor;

"roadway" has the same meaning as in the Street and Traffic Bylaw;

"school district" means the Abbotsford School District;

"short-cutting traffic" means traffic which travels through a residential neighbourhood for the purpose of bypassing congestion on an arterial road or collector road, and does not originate from, nor is destined to, a location within the residential neighbourhood;

"speed" means the 85^th percentile speed of all vehicles passing along a roadway during a 24-hour period;

"speed limit" means the speed limit established by a sign posted at the side of a roadway or, in the absence of such, the speed limit established by the Motor Vehicle Act;

"traffic calming device" means a device installed on or beside the roadway for the purpose of slowing down a vehicle;

"transit" means a vehicle operated by BC Transit;

"volume" means a measure of the number of vehicles which travel along a section of a roadway during a specified period of time.

Local roads

6   (1) When staff receive a request for a traffic calming device for a local road, staff direct the requestor to submit a petition to the engineering department.

(2) The petition must be signed by, whichever is less,

(a) at least 10 of the owners of the properties that are adjacent to the roadway for which a traffic calming device is requested, or

(b) at least one-third of the owners of the properties that are adjacent to the roadway for which a traffic calming device is requested.

(3) If a property is owned by more than one person, only one of the owners of the property may sign the petition.

(4) Subject to subsection (3), if a person owns more than one property adjacent to the roadway referred to in subsection (2), the person may sign the petition for as many properties as owned by that person.

(5) After the engineering department has received a petition, staff

(a) verify that the petition complies with subsection (2), and

(b) analyze the roadway to determine whether the roadway meets the following conditions:

(i) if a vertical deflection traffic calming device is requested, the grade of the roadway is 8% or less;

(ii) the impact to emergency services, transit or operational services would not be significant if a traffic calming device were installed at the proposed location;

(iii) the volume of the roadway is at least 500 vehicles per day;

(iv) the speed of traffic on the roadway is at least 5 km/hr over the speed limit or short-cutting traffic on the roadway is

(A) 100 vehicles per hour for the peak hour of the roadway, or

(B) 30% or more of the total volume on the roadway for the peak hour of the roadway.

(6) If the conditions in subsection (5) are met, staff develop a traffic calming device plan for the roadway, and include in the plan any measures that will be implemented for roadways that may be adversely affected by the installation of the traffic calming device.

(7) After a traffic calming device plan is developed, staff mail a survey to the properties referred to in subsection (2) to determine whether the owners support the traffic calming device plan.

(8) The owners referred to in subsection (7) are deemed to support the traffic calming device plan if

(a) the survey has a response rate of at least 50%, and

(b) at least two-thirds of the responses indicate support for the traffic calming device.

(9) If the survey does not have a response rate of at least 50%, staff will communicate that information to the resident lead.

(10) The resident lead is responsible for

(a) canvassing the roadway where a traffic calming device is proposed, and

(b) engaging owners for responses to the survey.

(11) The City is not responsible for canvassing the properties referred to in subsection (2) to obtain a response to a survey.

(12) If the conditions set out in this section are met, staff assign points to the traffic calming device plan in accordance with subsections (13) and (14) and implement the traffic calming device in accordance with section 9.

(13) The points that are assigned to a traffic calming device plan developed under this section are calculated as follows:

(a) for the speed on the roadway, 5 points are assigned for every kilometre that is 5 kilometres over the speed limit, to a maximum of 25 points;

(b) for the volume of the roadway, 1 point is assigned for every 100 vehicles on the roadway counted during the period of time referred to in subsection (5) (b) (iv), to a maximum of 25 points.

(14) The points calculated under subsection (13) are added together to calculate the total number of points for a traffic calming device plan developed under this section, to a maximum of 50 points.

Elementary school zones

7   (1) For the installation of a traffic calming device in an elementary school zone, the request must be in writing and made by a school district representative or the principal of the school that is adjacent to the roadway for which the traffic calming device is requested.

(2) If staff receive a request for a traffic calming device on a local road in an elementary school zone that is not made by a school district representative or the principal of the school that is adjacent to the roadway for which the traffic calming device is requested, staff direct the requestor to contact the principal of the affected school about the request.

(3) When the engineering department has received a request referred to in subsection (1), staff analyze the roadway to determine whether the roadway meets the following conditions:

(a) if a vertical deflection traffic calming device is requested, the grade of the roadway is 8% or less;

(b) the impact to emergency services, transit or operational services would not be significant if a traffic calming device were installed at the proposed location.

(4) If staff determine that the conditions set out in subsection (3) are met, staff

(a) develop a traffic calming device plan, and

(b) implement the traffic calming device in accordance with section 9.

Laneways

8   (1) When staff receive a request for traffic calming device for a laneway, staff direct the requestor to obtain a petition signed by the owners of the properties that are adjacent to the laneway for which a traffic calming device is requested and to submit the petition to the engineering department.

(2) The petition must be signed by at least two-thirds of the owners of the properties referred to in subsection (1).

(3) If a property is owned by more than one person, only one of the owners of the property may sign the petition.

(4) After the engineering department has received a request, staff analyze the roadway to determine whether the roadway meets the following conditions:

(a) if a vertical deflection traffic calming device is requested, the grade of the roadway is 8% or less;

(b) the impact to emergency services, transit or operational services would not be significant if a traffic calming device were installed at the proposed location.

(5) After the engineering department has received a petition, staff verify that the petition complies with subsection (2).

(6) If the petition complies with subsection (2), staff

(a) develop a traffic calming device plan for the laneway, and

(b) implement the traffic calming device plan in accordance with section 9.

Priority of traffic calming device implementation

9   (1) As funds become available, staff implement traffic calming device plans in the following order:

(a) a traffic calming device plan developed in accordance with section 8 elementary school zones;

(b) a traffic calming device plan developed in accordance with section 7 laneways;

(c) a traffic calming device plan developed in accordance with section 6 local roads.

(2) Without limiting subsection (1),

(a) if more than one traffic calming device plan has been developed in accordance with section 8 elementary school zones, the traffic calming device plans developed under section 8 are implemented in the order in which they were developed,

(b) if more than one traffic calming device plan has been developed in accordance with section 7 laneways, the traffic calming device plans developed under section 7 are implemented in the order in which they were developed, and

(c) if more than one traffic calming device plan has been developed in accordance with section 6 local roads , the traffic calming device plans developed under section 6 are implemented in the order of points, from highest to lowest, assigned to them under section 6 (14).

Approval of traffic calming device installations

10   The engineer will approve all traffic calming device installations.