Title
Discussion of installing Pedestrian Refuge Islands on Crabapple Road - Guidance
Body
Action Required:
Guidance
Description:
Staff would like to use the same concept as the Midtown Streetscape Project refuge islands on Crabapple Road, between Hwy 92 and Strickland Road. This is a safety related pilot project. We discovered there is a great deal of pedestrian crossing activity in this area and we are trying to help improve pedestrian crossing safety.
During the city's recent repaving project the Department made significant improvements to the striping within the corridor. We moved the travel lanes to the outside, eliminating some of the underutilized "gore" areas and adding safer left turn lanes.
Staff wants to add stamped, colored islands to act as pedestrian refuge areas in select locations in the center area. While our traffic calming program prohibits facilities within roads designated as collector and above, these may tend to have a traffic calming effect. We would like to start this program by adding two refuge islands adjacent to the recently added stripped and marked crosswalks at locations 1 and 3 (see attached graphic). We will consider adding islands in the vicinity of 2 and 4 once we work through some additional design details. Staff has received support from some of the affected property owners and is in the process of contacting the remainder.
If successful, staff will apply this concept to other areas around the City as appropriate.
Comments:
Staff recommends approval of the proposal and installation of the medians. Using our current procurement procedures we have selected a qualified contractor for the work. The contractor built a sample median at our Hembree Facitily. The cost of the contract is $13,344. Funds in the amount of $ 211,770 remain in the road safety account.