Kent neighbors find city’s traffic calming program a slow go

Neighbors are frustrated with the city of Kent’s slow and calm action to combat fast and furious cars along a residential street.

“The process is slow and there’s not great promise at the end because it will be sitting in a pile of projects and they don’t know if they have any money for it,” said Scott Bugbee, who lives in the Panther Lake neighborhood along Southeast 223rd Drive just east of 116th Avenue Southeast.

Residents along the street started to contact city officials about ways to slow vehicles shortly after Kent annexed the Panther Lake area in 2010. The  movement to get the city to take action grew more intense last year after a speeding drunk driver hit and killed motorcyclist and neighbor David Daniel on Aug. 22 along Southeast 223rd Drive.

City officials have met several times with a 223rd neighborhood committee to come up with a proposal to slow traffic along the street that has a posted speed of 25 mph.

Rob Knutzen, city transportation engineering specialist who oversees the traffic calming program, said city staff will present a plan to the neighbors in the fall to install traffic circles along the street between 116th Avenue Southeast and 132nd Avenue Southeast.

Traffic circles are islands placed in the middle of an intersection to force vehicles to slow down and work their way through an intersection. The circles are much smaller than roundabouts. The city of Covington installed a roundabout at Southeast 256th Street and 164th Avenue Southeast near Kentwood High School.

“It will be a series of traffic circles,” Knutzen said. “It could be up to four or even as many as five.”

Traffic circles can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 apiece, Knutzen said, with the higher-end cost if utilities have to be moved to install the circle.

After the neighborhood meeting in the fall, Knutzen said city staff will present the proposed traffic calming plan and costs to the City Council’s Public Works Committee. That committee of three council members will then determine whether the city can find a way to pay for the traffic circles. City staff also will present traffic calming plans at that time for two other neighborhoods – 42nd Avenue South on the West Hill and 100th Avenue Southeast between Southeast 208th Street and Southeast 216th Street in the Panther Lake area.

Matt Richner, who spearheaded a drive last year to get the city to install traffic calming devices along Southeast 223rd Drive after the death of Daniel, said two other accidents have occurred along the street in the last month.

“There have been a number of additional speed-related accidents since last August’s fatal accident and all we have received from the city is one blue sign indicating the speed limit and they painted the speed limit on the road itself just a few weeks ago,” Richner said in an email.

City staff installed the sign and painted the speed limit on the street as temporary measures.

“I feel as though the city has been slow in their response,” Richner said. “The concept behind the traffic calming committee is a good one. The time it takes to get anything done has been frustrating.”

Kent Police cited a man for negligent driving and speed too fast for conditions on June 13 after the man struck two vehicles parked along Southeast 223rd Drive while test driving a car. “I know I was traveling faster than the 25 mph speed limit,” the man said to an officer, according to the police report.

Earlier this month, a car ran into a lamp post and knocked down the new blue speed sign that city staff had recently installed.

Bugbee said he believes stop signs would be a better and a less expensive solution than traffic circles. Richner said he favors speed bumps, also partly because they cost less.

If the city goes ahead with the plan to install traffic circles, Richner doesn’t expect to see them anytime soon.

“Considering it took 10 months to paint on the speed limit onto the road, I would say a year or more before we see a single traffic circle,” Richner said.

Knutzen said the process for slowing traffic along 223rd Drive actually has gone faster than normal.

“The program is designed to take a year or two,” Knutzen said. “We accelerated them. Out of the three programs, it took the least amount of time. We acted in August and got a group of neighbors together. It took about a year.”

Bugbee said neighbors do not have any problems with city staff.

“Everyone at the city has been very nice,” Bugbee said. “It’s just frustrating (how long it takes).”

Knutzen understands the frustration.

“A year is a year,” Knutzen said. “The perception is that is too long. We feel we did the best we can in the amount of time and we have come up with a proposal.”