Comments on: Ponce Terrace Neighborhood Set To Receive Traffic Calming Improvements

By: ChrisM

ChrisM — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:16:58 +0000

I live at the intersection of Fairview and Montgomery and this is the first I’ve heard of this. Isn’t the city supposed to inform me if they’re going to build a bulbout right in front of my yard, and allow me to comment? Now that it’s been approved, I assume there’s nothing I can do, is there?

Having lived here since 2003, apart from a gap between 2010 and 2012, I’ve never found traffic to be a problem on Fairview. If anything, there’s a problem turning from Fairview onto Ponce, and this traffic island will make traffic sluggish enough that it’ll be harder to find a gap between cars to merge into Ponce traffic. And as someone else pointed out, we’re going to lose street parking spots, which is one of the things I liked about this neighborhood.

By: DrB

DrB — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:10:55 +0000

I don’t cut through because any turning onto or crossing Clairemont is simply not worth the wait or effort, given other local options.

I forgot about Beaumont being blocked off at Commerce (and my kid’s bus stop is right by there at Ponce Place). This is an example of good traffic diversion. Traffic diversion by itself can be bad with unintended consequences if not implemented with a total view of the area. “Good” traffic diversion promotes high volume flow while preserving low traffic neighborhoods. If Beaumont was accessible to Commerce. I’d expect to see fender benders there on Commerce during rush hour.

By: At Home in Decatur

At Home in Decatur — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:33:49 +0000

And it works. I never cut through there and I have a tendency to use efficient cut-throughs. It’s a great neighborhood for new drivers early in the morning because of the lack of traffic.

By: Deanne

Deanne — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:22:26 +0000

The Ponce Place neighborhood’s worked hard at taming cut through traffic for years and already has traffic diverting methods in place: some of the side streets are dead ended, including access at Commerce; there’s restricted times to turn into the neighborhood from Clairemont, and their neighborhood is a Designated Residential Zone, meaning no wiggle room if you’re caught going over the posted 25MPH speed limit. I don’t believe there’s much more that they could do on that front. Kudos to them on the new median islands and bulbouts– can’t wait to see how it works out! (That mini traffic median circle has Sycamore Dr at Hillcrest Ave written all over it! :0)

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:52:37 +0000

For better or worse, they’re public streets. Diverting is the first step towards self-fulfilled prophesies — insist that new growth will overwhelm capacity; sever connections or reduce opportunities for traffic to disperse through a more finely grained network; push all traffic onto a limited number of streets; and voila! Traffic gets worse!

I like these. They show the neighborhood taking ownership while, at the same time, acknowledging their role in the broader community. I’m all for taming, even severely taming, streets but restricting access to people who help pay for them? No can do.