A neighborhood near the the Columbus Air Park will be getting additional stop signs after residents said they thought traffic was moving too fast through the area.
On Tuesday, the Columbus Board of Public Works approved placing all-way stop signs at five intersections in Northbrook Addition — including the intersections of Cessna Drive and Autumn Ridge Drive, Cessna Drive and Clairmont Drive, Spring Valley Drive and Willowbrook Drive, Orchard Valle Drive and Avendale Drive and Fall Valley Drive and Avendale Drive.
City engineer Dave Hayward said he expects the stop signs to be installed next week. The city has extra stop signs it can use for the intersections, and will not need to purchase new ones.
“Residents there have ongoing requests for some additional traffic controls to try to slow people down,” Hayward said. “There are some long block spacings that then kind of lend themselves to that a little bit, but, generally, stop signs are not very effective at slowing people down. …I’m willing to give these five intersections a try that they have requested.”
Currently, stop signs in Northbrook Addition are arranged in a “basket-weave” pattern, meaning that there generally is a stop sign at alternating intersections, according to a city memo.
“The city traffic department installed traffic counters to collect traffic data in 2017 and 2018,” the memo states. “The data indicates light traffic volumes and average speeds that seem to be within the speed limits.”
No accidents have been reported in the neighborhood, city officials said.
After the stop signs are installed, city officials will install traffic counters a block or so away from the intersections to monitor speeds to see if average speeds decreased along those stretches of road compared to the 2017 and 2018 numbers, Hayward said.
Traffic counters are flat plates that are nailed down to the pavement that measures speed and traffic volume when a vehicle rolls over it, Hayward said.
If the new data shows no reduction in speed, the stops signs will be removed and city officials could consider additional measures, including speed bumps or humps, Hayward said.
“If they’re not working, we’re going to remove the stop signs because an unwarranted stop sign, if people are rolling through it or something like that, that has some negative effects,” he said. “…Then, we would look at the what the options are. There are things called traffic calming devices or measures that can be done. It could be a speed bump or a speed hump. We have avoided those over the years. Those have their own set of operating problems.”
