Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 11-01-11 special kenwood — reading text

3, 000 70. 66  The annual average daily traffic ( AADT) on both roadways is approximately 29,000 vehicles per day. Since both Lewis Turner Boulevard and Racetrack Road ran almost parallel to each other in the vicinity of Kenwood neighborhood, it seems that commuters wanting to connect between these two roadways end up using either Mooney Road or Country Club Avenue as a short -cut between these two major highways. Indeed, the Florida Department of Transportation traffic data further shows that Country Club Avenue carries an average of 3, 000 vehicles per day with Mooney Road carrying about 2, 000 vehicles per day. A sample traffic study conducted on Friday, April 22, 2011 conGnned that a substantial number of drivers use Country Club Avenue as a cut through roadway given its direct connection between Lewis Turner Boulevard and Racetrack Road in contrast to Mooney Road which is a winding road as was seen in Figure I above. The results of the sample study are displayed in Figure 4. m0N Figure 4. Traffic Split Between Country Club Avenue and Mooney Road The data displayed in Figure 4 were collected on a typical weekday, i. e., Friday, April 22, uE 2011 from 9 a.m. to 10 a. m. when K -12 schools were in session. The data show that on the = u average three out of four vehicles coming from Lewis Turner Boulevard rum right into the :°- a Country Club Avenue. Also, on the average one out of two vehicles heading towards Lewis Turner Road emanates from the Country Club Avenue. Again, as indicated in Table 1, the average daily traffic on Country Club Avenue is 3, 000 vehicles per day. With the Kra-facu r being 10. 66 %, this suggests that approximately 320 vehicles traveling during a regular morning peak hour ( 7 a. m_ to 9 a-m.) and evening peak hour ( 4 p. m. to 6 p. m.) use Country Club Avenuefl t' rtry  u 5. 2 Speed Characteristics The City of Fort Walton Beach conducted a traffic study in which continuous volume and speed data were collected from August 2 through 5, 2010 using pneumatic tube counters. The counters were installed at various locations along Country Club Avenue. The results quoted herein as seen in Table 3 are from the counter that was installed approximately 250 feet north of the south -side intersection of Mooney Road and Country Club Avenue. Table 3. Speed Distribution on Country Club Avenue ( Ref. 3) Characteristic Northbound Southbound Speed Iinin 5MI' H 21M Ili I Average Speed N MPH L M PI I il," Percentile Speed 36 MPH 40 MPI I Exceeding Speed 1. hnh Minimum Obscnxd SMPH 5MPH Maximum Obccned 98 MPH 98 MI' ll 10 - mph pace 22 — 32 MPH 27 — 37 MPH of vehicles in pace 57% 52% Closer examination of data displayed in Table 3 shows that the 85° percentile speed in the northbound and southbound directions are respectively I I and 15 miles per hour above the speed limit. Other statistical measures, i. e. average speed, pace, and percent exceeding speed limit clearly reveal that there is a speeding problem on this stretch of Country Club Avenue. Even of more concern is the fact that in both northbound and southbound directions two drivers were recorded to be driving at 98 miles per hour, a speed which is highly inappropriate and dangerous for a residential street. 5.3 Travel Time Characteristics One of the factors influencing regular commuters to select a particular route is the shortness of travel time on that route compared to other alternative routes. This especially true during morning and evening peak hours as commuters are trying to get to work or home as fast as possible. Currently, a driver on Lewis Turner Boulevard intending to access Racetrack Road and vice versa) has a choice of up to four viable routes in Kenwood neighborhood. The routes are Country Club Avenue, Fairway Avenue, Powell Drive, and Mooney Road. Table 4 shows these routes and their physical lengths. the travel time data on these routes were collected using a GPS data logger which logs Q the GPS coordinates and the time along the route being driven. The ArcGIS shape files for Kenwood neighborhood were acquired from the Okaloosa County Government, GIS Division. The GPS data were overlaid on the GIS shape tiles and travel times between various points were calculated. Five travel time runs were conducted on each route during the morning peak hour between 7: 30 a.m. and 8: 30 a. m. and the average travel time was calculated. All times were xiv q sr  3. 1. d measured from the Country Club Avenue/ Mooney Road SE intersection as the starting point to the Country Club Avenue /Mooney Road NE intersection as the ending point. The average travel times are also depicted on Table 4. Table 4. ANer' a ^_e Peak IIour Travel Times on Potential Cut FllrooLh Sn eel i No. of Travel Cut Through Alternative Stops Length Time 2 Q82 mi. 120 sec I. Country Club Avenue 2 Fairway Avenue ( lira Powell Drive and Wedgewood Lane on the north side) 4 1, 16 mi 166 sec 3. Powell Drive (connecting with Fairway Avenue on the south side ) 4' 1. 13 mi 173 sec 4. Mooney Road 1 1. 74 mi. 199 sec The YIELD sign at the inuaseoion of Pnwell Drive and Fairway Avenue is counted as a STOP sign. The results in Table 4 confirm why drivers choose Country Club Avenue over Mooney Road, i. e., it gives them a shorter travel tune. The data in Table 4 further show that Fairway Avenue and Powell Drive have the potential to be used as cut through streets given that they have shorter travel time than Mooney Road. if traffic calming measures were to be implemented on Country Club Avenue, it is possible that some drivers knowledgeable with this neighborhood might divert to Powell Drive and Fairway Avenue. However, in driving these two routes, the researchers found that there were too many twist and tums ( including four stops) which might discourage some drivers from using Powell Drive and Fairway Avenue as cut through streets. 5. 4 Level of Service Analysis Analysis of the level of service ( LOS) of a roadway is aimed at relating demand to the available roadway capacity. The Highway Capacity Manual ( HCM) has procedures that can he used for the analysis of level of service ( Ref. 4). Although both Country Club Avenue and Mooney Road are residential streets with important access functions in the neighborhood, they however do carry a substantial amount of through traffic and they can therefore be considered to be minor arterials for the purposes of level of service analysis. Both streets do not specifically fit into either design category of the HCM Urban Street analysis procedure but the Design Category III, i. e., Intermediate Category is close enough in giving an overview of the existing levels of service on both roadways. To the extent that HCM Urban Street procedure requires " signalized intersection" control delay, the stop -controlled intersmtions' control delay data were collected in the field and substituted for signalized intersections' control delay in the HCM analysis procedure. The resulting HCM analysis worksheets are displayed in Appendix B. The results show that the overall level of service of Country Club Avenue is LOS B while the overall level of service on Mooney Road is LOS A. Country Club Avenue is 0. 82 -mile long from its intersection with Mooney Road in the north to its intersection with Mooney Road in the south. Mooney Road is 1. 74 -mile long measured between its two intersecting points with Country Club AVela1C. z. .. r. Since control delay is a main input into the HCM procedures of determining level of service, the presence of two stop -controlled intersections on Country Club Avenue compared to only one on Mooney Road degrades the level of service on Country Club Avenue. From the level of service analysis, it can be surmised that operations on Country Club Avenue during the peak hours are more congested that on Mooney Road during the same hours. It should be noted that Country Club Avenue carries an average of 3, 000 vehicles per day while Mooney Road carries an average of only 2.000 vehicles per day. 6. TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS HISTORY Traffic accidents that occurred on Kenwood neighborhood roadways were reviewed to determine if there are any trends or patterns that can be mitigated by engineering improvements or enforcement strategies. The accident data encompassing year 2004 through year 2008 — ix- 5 -year period — were downloaded from Crash Analysis Reporting ( CAR) database which is maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation. Safety Office. It is noteworthy that at the time of the analysis year 2008 was the latest year in which data were available for Okaloosa County. Information displayed in Figure 5 and Appendix C tables show that a total of 13 crashes were reported in Kenwood neighborhood in the 5 -year period out of which 10 were property damage only crashes while three crashes involved some sort of injury, though none was fatal. 0 e.rv. n 1y rr Y J' 1 J 9rc rt y} O ALbYka%n t1 I Y Y t Y