The City of Lawrence Neighborhood Traffic Management Program, which was established via Resolution 7272, is a comprehensive initiative that aims to maintain or improve existing neighborhood environments through the application of the 5 Es; Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, Evaluation and Engineering.
The Neighborhood Traffic Management Program uses a comprehensive approach to address unsafe driving on the City’s neighborhood streets. This includes:
- Speed limit reductions on neighborhood streets
- Community outreach and media campaign
- Traffic law enforcement and education
- Temporary engineering solutions
- Evaluation with each approach
Neighborhood Traffic Management Pilot Program
Lawrence is taking a fresh approach to addressing traffic-related concerns within residential areas throughout the city. This pilot program aims to improve the quality of life by reducing speeding and cut-through traffic on local and collector streets. Other concerns related to traffic safety involving pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists may also be addressed with this program.
Managing local traffic to enhance safety can be accomplished through a wide range of strategies including enforcement, education or physical infrastructure changes. Tools to involve in these strategies include automated speed radar signs, curb extensions/neckdowns, chicanes, speed cushions, traffic circles or mini-roundabouts, raised pedestrian crosswalks, signage, and more. Each of these strategies and tools are evaluated on a case-by-case basis and will consider type of street, surrounding land use, and existing traffic volumes of all modes.
The Old West Lawrence neighborhood was selected as the area for the pilot program.
Old West Lawrence Traffic Calming Pilot Project
City staff has worked with residents of the Old West Lawrence neighborhood to address traffic concerns while considering neighborhood preferences for traffic calming treatments.
The implementation of the pilot traffic calming project progressed throughout the latter half of 2021 and continued into the Fall of 2022. The pilot traffic calming project included continuous collaboration with representatives from the Old West Lawrence neighborhood Traffic Safety Team, traffic engineering services from JEO Consulting Group, and a thorough public engagement process. During the project, three traffic calming plans were designed, implemented and evaluated using before/after traffic data and feedback heard from the public via two Lawrence Listens surveys and a virtual pubic meeting.
The third temporary traffic calming configuration was installed in October 2022 based on the recommended plan from the members of the Old West Lawrence neighborhood Traffic Safety Team. The map of the installation is available here to review. The before and after data on the third configuration is available here to review. A Lawrence Listens survey was conducted to collect feedback from residents on the third temporary traffic calming configuration. The results of the survey are available here.
The project team presented the findings from the third configuration and a recommendation for next steps to the Multi-Modal Transportation Commission (MMTC).  The MMTC recommended permanent installation the third traffic calming plan, consisting of 8 speed bumps, 2 speed cushions, and 6 chicanes in 2023 and 7 traffic circles in 2024 at their March 6, 2023 meeting. The City Commission will consider approving to proceed with design of the permanent traffic calming installations in Old West Lawrence and authorize the City Manager to execute the supplemental agreement with JEO for design at their April 18, 2023 meeting.For more information on previous versions of the traffic calming installations, you can review the below documents.
Previous Efforts
Neighborhood Streets Speed Limit Reduction
25 mph speed limit signs were installed and implemented on all neighborhood streets in Lawrence in 2021. This change took place following a survey asking Lawrence residents about their preference for residential streets speed limits. Survey results showed that more than half of the 551 respondents preferred the speed limit be lowered from 30 mph. In March 2020, the Multi-Modal Transportation Commission voted unanimously to forward a recommendation to the City Commission to change the local speeds to 25 mph. In October 2020, the City Commission approvedOrdinance No. 9812 to lower the speed limit.
Safer Neighborhood Speeds Campaign
The City of Lawrence launched the Safer Neighborhood Speeds education campaign in January 2021. The campaign’s overarching goal is to improve safety on neighborhood streets in Lawrence and focuses on reminding people driving to slow down, look out for others, and stop for people wanting to cross the street. The campaign closed in Fall of 2021 and a final report was presented to the Multi-Modal Transportation Commission in December 2021.
Neighborhood Traffic Management Pilot Program FAQs
The primary goal is to improve traffic safety in the neighborhood. The planned pilot test of traffic calming devices is intended to discourage people from cutting through the neighborhood, ultimately reducing cut-through traffic, lowering traffic volumes, possibly lowering top speeds and improving safety.
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The objective of this pilot is to reduce the volume of cut-through traffic, but cut-through drivers also tend to exceed the speed limit, so speeds may be reduced.
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The diverters do not stop traffic; however, they do force a 90-degree turn from all four approaches. The median barriers do not stop traffic; however, they will force a right-turn from north and south and prohibit left-turns from east and west.
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Maine St. is classified as a collector, meaning it is intended to collect traffic from the neighborhood and funnel to arterials such as 6th St. and 9th St. Depending on the results of this pilot program, additional traffic calming on Maine may be introduced. However, because Maine is an emergency route, tools such as diagonal diverters or median barriers cannot be used.
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Maine St. and Tennessee St. are designed and designated as collector streets, so it is appropriate that through traffic traverses those rather than local streets. The proposed test will determine the impact that the traffic calming devices on the local streets will have on the collectors. Traffic volume and speed will be monitored in real-time in order to detect any changes to traffic speed and/or volume and react accordingly.
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No changes to stop signs will be made during the pilot period. Should the plan be adopted permanently, stop patterns will be revisited.
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Stop signs should not be used for traffic calming. All-way stops should only be used when warranted based on a traffic study and criteria in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (which is a national standard published by the Federal Highway Administration for the application of traffic control devices on public roads and adopted for use in Kansas under state statute). Unwarranted stops can have a counter effect on traffic safety, vehicles will speed up after stopping unnecessarily or roll through stops which leads to compliance and enforcement issues. Likewise, cyclists are required to stop by law but understandably don’t when there is no crossroad traffic.
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Yes. All types of traffic calming, including horizontal deflection (such as curb extensions), were discussed with neighborhood representatives. It was agreed that to have the intended effect (reduce cut-thru traffic) experimentation with more aggressive options such as diverters and barriers is needed.
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Traffic signal warrants are addressed in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Removal would require an engineering study that considers four warrant criteria: traffic volumes, crash history, sight distance, and pedestrians.
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The traffic safety community supports law enforcement and encourages the use of traffic safety units. For instance, KDOT works with over 200 agencies across the state in annual mobilizations such as Click-it or ticket and You Drink, You Drive, You Lose, with funding from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In any agency, traffic safety units often come and go with the priorities of the Chief.
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The average speed of vehicles in the neighborhood varies from block to block. Monitoring equipment found most drivers exceeded the 20 MPH speed limit, with a maximum speed of 59 mph.
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Mississippi is classified as a local street, not a collector, but has the highest volume of traffic of any local street in the neighborhood (1,200 vehicles per day) largely because of the signal at 9th St. and direct access to campus. The diverters are intended to encourage north/south traffic to use Tennessee St. and Kentucky St. and east/west traffic to use 6th St. and 9th St.
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The proposed test is not designed to directly address this issue, but by reducing cut-through traffic on Mississippi St., the traffic calming devices may reduce the number of people turning left at this location.
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Median barrier islands will be placed at seven intersections in the neighborhood on 7th St. and 8th St. At these intersections, vehicular traffic on 7th St. and 8th St. will be allowed to go through or turn right; lefts will be prohibited. On the north/south streets, vehicular traffic will only be allowed to turn right. Like diagonal diverters, pedestrian and bike access will not be restricted.
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Historically, people walked in the neighborhood, and we hope to improve its walkability.
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Similar installations of diagonal diverters in other communities have reduced traffic volumes by 30-35%. Speeding is expected to be reduced as well.
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City of Lawrence data shows speed humps reduce speeds by 3-4 mph with little impact on traffic volume.
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Emergency vehicles will be able to traverse the barriers and diverters. The neighborhood will not be shut off from emergency vehicles. The city will engage with the schools and emergency agencies regarding the impact.
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The devices that will be installed this fall are temporary, which will allow them to easily be reconfigured or removed if they are not working or are having unintended detrimental impacts.
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The primary objective of this program is a reduction in cut-through traffic. The largest volume of such traffic is coming to and from campus. While the diverters impact east/west traffic at Mississippi St., the median barriers at the other locations do not, other than creating a slight narrowing and potentially reducing speeds.
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The diverters on Mississippi St. will impact the habits of East/West traffic. It is also possible that during the trial period it is determined that additional installations on 7th and 8th Streets are recommended.
