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The city’s experiment to determine the traffic calming effectiveness of a one-lane Monterey Road through downtown Morgan Hill will continue until at least August.
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After hearing from about 20 members of the public at a May 20 public hearing, the City Council voted unanimously to continue the six-month trial, which started Feb. 18.
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The council also received a report from city staff and consultant Alta Planning + Design on the lane configuration’s effect on a variety of traffic and opinion metrics at the project’s halfway point.
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These data include traffic volumes on Monterey Road, noise levels, average speeds through downtown and other metrics that will inform the council as they get closer to a decision on whether or not to make the lane reduction permanent. The overall report showed mixed results, with only minor changes in most categories.
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After hearing the report and public comment, Mayor Steve Tate and Mayor Pro Tem Larry Carr said they were determined to continue the trial for a full six months when they approved the project in November 2014—even though some residents at the May 20 meeting urged the council to stop the trial immediately.
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Carr said he would only support discontinuing the experiment if it proved to be a major hindrance to downtown business activity and safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists.
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“Clearly, the data shows the world is not falling apart on this project,” Carr said. “Continuing it makes perfect sense to me.”
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The majority of those who addressed the council during the public hearing supported continuing the trial the full six months, which ends in August. These included three local secondary school students who bike to and from school each day, who noted the buffered bike lanes that are a key feature of the “complete streets” configuration make their morning and afternoon rides much safer.
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Many of those in support of continuing the trial are downtown business owners. Some of those said their sales have gone up considerably since the trial started, but they acknowledged that could have nothing to do with the one-lane configuration.
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Councilmember Rich Constantine urged more downtown and surrounding businesses to participate in an economic development measurement program spearheaded by the Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Association. This voluntary program would allow merchants to submit their sales data from the trial period and previous six-month periods to determine if the one-lane configuration has a widespread impact on sales.
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As of May 20, only 12 businesses have signed up for the program, which allows participants to be anonymous so they don’t feel compelled to publicize private information.
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“It should be 100 percent participation, because this is for you,” Constantine said to the business community “We’re not doing this for bikers. We’re doing this to make downtown more livable, walkable and rideable. If we’re not getting data from the businesses, we won’t be able to make a proper decision.”
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The council will receive another review of traffic, cycling, pedestrian and other metrics at the end of the six-month trial. After that, they will make a decision on whether or not to make the lane configuration permanent as part of a new downtown streetscape.
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One resident who wanted the council to stop the complete streets trial immediately is Morgan Hill resident Sean Adams.
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He said close to 1,000 people have signed an online petition he started that pleads with city officials to end the experiment. And he estimated that about 75 percent of residents throughout Morgan Hill—not just downtown—seem to be against the configuration. These residents have cited the project’s effect on motor traffic, which slows to a crawl in the mornings and evenings, and causes backups on routes surrounding the downtown.
Consultant’s report
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The city’s purpose in conducting the trial is to slow down and reduce downtown traffic to motorists and cyclists who plan to stop and visit the neighborhood, and divert through traffic to outer parallel routes. In turn, according to city staff, the “traffic calming” effort is intended to make downtown more pedestrian and bicycle friendly.
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The effort includes a six-month transformation of the outside vehicle lane on each side of Monterey Road to a buffered bicycle lane. The midpoint check-in shows that bicycle traffic increased by 116 percent halfway through the trial, which equates to an average increase from 43 to 93 bicyclists per day.
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Between the consultant’s “pre-pilot” and midpoint measurement periods, the motor vehicle traffic volume on Monterey Road decreased by 14 percent, while traffic on Butterfield Boulevard—which serves as a bypass around the east side of downtown—increased by 9 percent, according to city staff.
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Other routes parallel to Monterey Road saw “relatively small increases” in rerouted traffic, but their volumes remained below their carrying capacity, city staff said.
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Other city streets that have seen significant increases in vehicle traffic since before the trial began are Wright Avenue from Garden Way to Monterey Road (25 percent increase in motor volume), and DeWitt Avenue from Alkire to Dunne avenue (15 percent increase).
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The average number of pedestrians crossing at the five intersections on Monterey Road through the experiment area dropped by five percent, from 348 before the pilot to 331 at the halfway point. The city staff report calls this drop in pedestrian activity “slight but statistically significant.”
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The data also include measurements of public opinion. Surveys of residents show that respondents in favor of continuing the six-month trial dropped from 50 percent before the project to 38 percent at the halfway point. However, downtown businesses in favor of continuing the pilot went up from 50 percent to 56 percent.
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The cost of the six-month trial is $246,000, which includes the consultant’s maximum fee of $75,000. The project is funded by leftover Redevelopment Agency bond proceeds.
