Ephrata recommends traffic education for drivers

EPHRATA — Ephrata city staff recommends using temporary signs and radar trailers to educate drivers to improve safety in a neighborhood.

The plans discussions with the school district, to increase their loading zone to help.

The city studied traffic in the area of First Avenue Southeast and F Street Southeast after Stormie Baltz, an Ephrata resident, asked the city to do something to protect pedestrians along the road.

City Administrator Wes Crago said he understood Baltz’s concerns, but the state guidelines don’t call for a stop sign at the intersection. Since drivers wouldn’t expect a stop sign at the intersection, the may speed past it. This may make the intersection less safe for pedestrians expecting cars to stop.

“This is government wanting to be consistent and not wanting to be accused of being arbitrary,” Crago said. “This is actually engineering for what is safe. We drive more or less instinctively. We don’t pay attention to signs as much as we pay attention to the overall impression of the road.”

Crago used the example of Nat Washington Way near St. Rose of Lima Catholic School. The four-lane road with sidewalks separated from the road tells people to go 35 miles per hour, when the speed limit is 25 miles per hour.

“People have been taught to drive a certain way in a residential neighborhood,” he said. “If you throw a surprise or an inconsistent element into that, they are going to ignore it.”

In response, the city purchased traffic counters and placed them at seven locations in the area, according to the report. They set three of the counters along First Avenue Southeast, two counters along F Street Southeast and two counters along H Street Southeast.

The highest amount of traffic in the study was recorded along H Street Southeast. The counters logged 668 vehicles on average per day, Crago said. The average speed was 22 miles per hour and about 96 percent of the cars traveled at or below the speed limit.

“Which works out to at the peak hour 128 cars per hour,” he said. “Which is about one car every 28 seconds … One car every 28 seconds is not quite rush hour.”

Most of the counters near the corner of First Street Southeast and F Street Southeast, logged between 203 and 253 vehicles on average per day, according to the report. The traffic counter at the corner of First Street Southeast and F Street Southeast recorded 404 vehicles on average per day, going an average of 19 miles per hour.

“(The counter at the corner is) the one odd spot in the data, it doesn’t really throw anything else off, it just doesn’t make sense,” he said.

The neighborhood had five traffic incidents between 2000 and 2008, according to the report. Incidents include people being stopped by police as well as accidents. This comes out to less than one incident a year.

“This neighborhood, the southeast area (of Ephrata) is actually .625 a year,” Crago said. “So pretty low in terms of what’s going on out there.”

The perception there is too much traffic and the traffic is going too fast isn’t true, according to the report.

“The high peak is 2.13 cars per minute and 85 percent of vehicles are at the speed limit or lower, that’s what you’d expect from a neighborhood in a quiet residential area in a fairly small rural town,” Crago said. “That’s typical traffic.”

He said a stop sign is not warranted. The threshold for a stop sign is 300 vehicles an hour.

The report recommends the city continues to use the radar trailer, police enforcement and keep monitoring the area to see if the roads need marked crosswalks or yield signs.

Also city staff plans on continuing the use of “Slow Children” signs. The city gave Baltz signs to place in her neighborhood.

“We’d like to purchase different yard signs because any sign becomes familiar,” Crago said. “If you have different ones in different places, contrasting colors. They catch the eye cause people to slow down and hopefully create a good habit.”

 The city also want to continue working with the school district, Crago said. The district has installed a larger drop off area for students and changed how they educate people. The city staff plans on having a discussion with school district staff in January.

Baltz said the city was taking the right steps and the temporary yard signs worked well until people got used to them. Also she is glad the city is continuing to look the issue and discuss it with the schools.

“I’m impressed by what the city has done for me,” she said. “I do think they’ve taken a look at something that will benefit us.”