City of Lawrence

TRAFFIC ENGINEERING DIVISION

MEMORANDUM

TO:              Charles Soules, Director of Public Works

                   Terese Gorman, City Engineer

FROM:         David Woosley, Transportation/Traffic Engineer

DATE:           10 January 2006

SUBJECT:     MID-BLOCK PEDESTRIAN CROSSING

                   New Hampshire Street between 6^th Street and 7^th Street

                   Traffic Safety Commission Item No. 4

At the December 5, 2005, Traffic Safety Commission meeting, the TSC heard a request from The World Company, on be-half of their employees, to construct a MID-BLOCK PEDESTRIAN CROSSING on New Hampshire Street between 6^th Street and 7^th Street at location 1, and voted unanimously to approve the request.

A mid-block crossing is feasible under the following conditions:

1. The street should be re-striped in order to provide a two-way left-turn lane and a place to install a YIELD TO PEDESTRIANS sign in the center of the roadway; this can also provide some refuge for pedestrians and allow them to cross one direction of traffic at a time, similar to the crossing in the 1000 block of New Hampshire (estimated cost, $37,500);
2. The crossing should be a raised crosswalk which will help slow the speed of the traffic at the crosswalk and in the area, and bulb-outs should be constructed on each side of the street to shorten the distance that pedestrians must cross, shorten the amount of time they are in the street and provide better visibility of the pedestrians (estimated cost, $40,000).  Depending on the final design, storm sewer inlets may be required (estimated cost if needed, $15,000);
3. Street lighting should be provided at the crosswalk similar to what was recently installed at the crossing in the 1000 block of New Hampshire (estimated cost, $10,000).

Implementation:

• Several projects will be occurring in the downtown area this summer: water main replacement on Massachusetts Street, mill and overlay on New Hampshire Street (from 6^th to 8^th Street), and reconstruction of the intersection at 7^th and New Hampshire.
• The National Collegiate Cycling Championship will be held May 21^st.
• Therefore, the mid-block crossing improvements will be coordinated with other work and occur later this year.

Finally, these improvements were not anticipated in the 2006 budget and may need to be bond financed.