- May 6, 2024
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Members of Palm Coast's City Council expressed concerns on Tuesday about being proactive for roadway safety.
In Jan. 10's City Council Workshop meeting, city staff gave a presentation on the city's process for investigating roadway safety. The presentation discussed how city staff responds to safety concerns, alongside issues like speed radar studies, signage, sidewalks and preventative safety measures.
The presentation outlined several the pros and cons for preventative safety measures, and Councilman Ed Danko suggested the city try to proactively bring awareness to safety concerns in the city.
"We've seen an increase in bad driving," Danko said. "And not just in Palm Coast."
Danko suggested the idea, brought up in a one-on-one he had with Michael Grunewald, the traffic engineer who presented the study on Tuesday, to work with the public, the Flagler County Sheriff's Office and media for a public awareness push for safe driving.
"Maybe a driving safety month of some degree where we really make a push on getting people to pay a little more attention behind the wheel," Danko said.
Grunewald said the presentation was meant to inform the council members and public on the policy and process in place to handle traffic safety. The city follows a process to investigate, identify and then apply solutions for traffic safety concerns, Grunewald said.
"Without these reports from our residents, we couldn't possibly know where the problems might be." — Michael Grunewald, city traffic engineer.
Palm Coast has 439 miles of residential roadway and 103 miles of arterial roadway, Grunewald said, which are designed to carry heavy levels of traffic. Each month, the city receives between 10-15 resident-submitted concerns through various sources like Palm Coast Connect, calls to city hall, comments at city council meetings and staff observations.
"Without these reports from our residents, we couldn't possibly know where the problems might be," Grunewald said.
The city has implemented several safety initiatives in Palm Coast, Grunewald said, including conducting a feasibility study for retrofitting residential areas with sidewalks.
The results of that study, however, were less positive than some would hope.
That study found it too cost prohibitive to implement after the fact. Sidewalks are "not feasible," the study found, with high installation costs. Retrofitting residential areas with sidewalks would also require easements from each property owner and driveway reconstruction, Grunewald said.
The city also conducts speed studies when they receive concerns, Grunewald said. The studies are conducted by placing radar speed recorders in position for seven days. The data from the studies is analyzed and later forwarded to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office.
Ideally, Grunewald said, if 85% of traffic is found to be going in a "normal" speed range — defined as 7 mph above or below the speed limit — the area is considered in a normal range and no action is taken.
Many residents, he said, ask about adding in speeding-deterrents speed radars on signs and speed bumps. Grunewald said deterrents like those are called traffic calming methods and come with their own pros and cons.
Traffic calming is using mainly physical means to "reduce the negative effects of motor vehicle use, alter driver behavior and improve conditions for non-motorized street users," according to the Institute for Transportation Engineers. Landscaped median roadways on residential streets, speed limit radar signs and speed bumps, humps and tables are all considered traffic calming method, Grunewald said.
Palm Coast has built in landscaped median roadways already into many residential neighborhoods, Grunewald said. These medians, like speed bumps, are meant to slow traffic. But anything that slows regular traffic will also slow down emergency service vehicles.
"Everything that calms traffic, calms a fire truck and calms a police car and an ambulance." — Fire Chief Kyle Berryhill
The city cited several sources studying the effect speed humps had on fire rescue times. In a study from Portland, Oregon, they found 14 and 22 foot speed humps could cause up to a 9 second delay in fire rescue — per speed hump.
Fire Chief Kyle Berryhill said it takes longer for larger vehicles like fire trucks to slow down and accelerate, which adds to the response time.
"Everything that calms traffic, calms a fire truck and calms a police car and an ambulance," Berryhill said. "There's a double-edged sword."
While speed bumps to work to slow drivers, Grunewald said they also have other unintended consequences like high acceleration rates after the hump, extreme road noise and more, according to a study from the Iowa Department of Transportation.
On the other hand, speed radar signs — already present in Palm Coast on Florida Park Drive and Casper Drive — do mildly reduce speed in the short term. But studies show, Grunewald said, that the more radar signs there are, the less effective they are. As well, speed radar signs are less effective overall the more time that passes.
"As drivers get used to them over time they start ignoring them because it's just part of the landscape," Grunewald said.
One way around that would be to move the radars around to new areas every few weeks, he said.
Councilwoman Theresa Carli Pontieri expressed concerns that the public had not been engaged as far as the listed unintended consequences.
"I don't want our residents to be discouraged," Pontieri said. "Because from the presentation it kind of seems like we're doing everything we can. ... In my mind, this is kind of a report as to where we are right now."
Grunewald said one of the value of getting reports from residents is that the reports don't get forgotten. Even if they go out multiple times to study the same spot, he said, every time they go out is another data point to finding a solution.
"I don't want us to be sitting here six months from now talking about a child that got hit by a car. I don't want us acting retroactively rather than proactively." — Councilwoman Theresa Carli Pontieri
"The door is never shut," he said.
Pontieri said she wanted to reassure residents that they will continue looking for solutions around these unintended consequences. She said she wants to be a steward to looking for alternate solutions.
"I don't want us to be sitting here six months from now talking about a child that got hit by a car," she said. "I don't want us acting retroactively rather than proactively."
