About
the Neighborhood Traffic Management Program
Goal: The goal of the Los Angeles County Neighborhood Traffic Management Program is to enhance and protect the quality of life throughout the County by making neighborhoods safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, residents living in these neighborhoods and the motoring public by altering the behavior of motorists.
Overview of the NTMP Process
The following shows the process which the County will employ when inititating a new NTMP for a specific neighborhood:
Click here to view a detailed illustration of the NTMP Process and Timeline.
Qualifying Criteria
Requests for the implementation of neighborhood traffic management measures on public streets will be considered by the DPW on a case-by-case basis for those streets meeting all of the following criteria:
1. The street should be primarily residential in nature with a daily traffic volume of at least 500 vehicles but not more than 5,000 vehicles per day.
2. The County Sheriff or Fire Department or other public safety or service agencies have not provided sufficient evidence of any major public safety concerns regarding the neighborhood traffic management and calming measures.
3. The change in traffic flow will not result in unreasonable liability exposure for the County of Los Angeles.
4. The requested action is authorized by legislative authority in State law.
5. The changes in traffic flow will not divert significant amounts of traffic to other residential streets.
6. Petition requirements. (Level 3 and Level 4 Improvements)
The following procedures must be followed for submitting a petition for Level 3 or Level 4 measures to the Department of Public Works:
a. The Project Engineer will recommend and examine the technical feasibility and anticipated impacts of the proposed neighborhood traffic management and calming measures. This review will include items such as the Vehicle Code, State law, the Circulation Element of the County's General Plan, the type of road or street involved, compliance with engineering regulations, existing traffic conditions, projected traffic conditions, the potential for traffic diversion to adjacent streets, impacts to emergency vehicle response rimes and the increased liability exposure for the County or conflicts with future planned improvements.
b. The Project Engineer will determine the boundary of the "affected area" to be petitioned. The affected area will include but not be limited to those properties where normal travel routes to and from the "affected area" are to be altered by the neighborhood traffic management and calming measures, and/or properties that are significantly impacted by traffic that is to be diverted.
The Affected Area boundaries are developed by taking into account surrounding arterials, physical barriers such as rivers, parks, tracks, the pattern of impacts as identified by residents, and existing community area boundaries.c. The petition requesting the neighborhood traffic calming measures must be supported by two-thirds of the total number of citizens affected by the proposed changes in traffic flows. The citizens should include property owners, tenants, and business owners within the affected area who might be significantly affected by the proposed measure. Persons submitting petitions must attempt to contact all affected parties. At a minimum, 90 percent of all affected persons who may need to use the street(s) on a daily basis must be contacted for the petition to be accepted by the County. This requirement will be satisfied by signatures from 90 percent of the affected parties indicating support or non-support for the neighborhood traffic management and calming measures.
Petition Requirements
The following procedures must be followed for submitting a petition for Level 3 or Level 4 measures to the Department of Public Works:
a. The Project Engineer will recommend and examine the technical feasibility and anticipated impacts of the proposed neighborhood traffic management and calming measures. This review will include items such as the Vehicle Code, State law, the Circulation Element of the County's General Plan, the type of road or street involved, compliance with engineering regulations, existing traffic conditions, projected traffic conditions, the potential for traffic diversion to adjacent streets, impacts to emergency vehicle response rimes and the increased liability exposure for the County or conflicts with future planned improvements.
b. The Project Engineer will determine the boundary of the "affected area" to be petitioned. The affected area will include but not be limited to those properties where normal travel routes to and from the "affected area" are to be altered by the neighborhood traffic management and calming measures, and/or properties that are significantly impacted by traffic that is to be diverted.
c. The petition requesting the neighborhood traffic calming measures must be supported by two-thirds of the total number of citizens affected by the proposed changes in traffic flows. The citizens should include property owners, tenants, business owners within the n affected area" who might be significantly affected by the proposed measure. Persons submitting petitions must attempt to contact all affected parties. At a minimum, 90 percent of all affected persons who may need to use the street(s) on a daily basis must be contacted for the petition to be accepted by the County. This requirement will be satisfied by signatures from 90 percent of the affected parties indicating support or non-support for the neighborhood traffic management and calming measures.
Determining Affected Area Boundaries
The Affected Area boundaries are developed by taking into account surrounding arterials, physical barriers such as rivers, parks, tracks, the pattern of impacts as identified by residents, and existing community area boundaries.
Developing and Conducting an Effective Community Outreach Program
Message Development Educating Impacted Communities
The key to any Community Outreach / Public Education Program is an understanding and appreciation of the topic. Neighborhoods may be aware that increased traffic on residential streets is adversely impacting their lives, but they may not know that there are solutions available to address these problems. The challenge is to educate communities about both the problem and possible solutions in terms that are easily understandable, implementable and effective. When communities recognize their role in problem solving, they are more likely to participate in solution generating exercises, which is a key component of community consensus building.
The first step toward building consensus is educating impacted communities and stakeholders about problems and their range of options. Fact sheets and /or newsletters broadly addressing the issues and solutions should be developed and distributed. Key topics include:
· What is a "Neighborhood Traffic Management Plan"
· How will an effective Neighborhood Traffic Plan improve your community?
Neighborhood Traffic Management Planning Process
Communities and impacted stakeholders require an established process from the outset. The LACDPW is charged with creating and maintaining a public process that solicits and values community input, honors timelines and individual time constraints, and is transparent, inclusive and effective.
Once a (traffic related) problem is defined within a community and key stakeholders identified, it's important that the process is developed and agreed upon by all involved parties (i.e. stakeholders, appropriate LA County representatives and DPW staff).
The Evaluation Process
An evaluation process that includes appropriate stakeholders is another integral element to the overall process. This component should also be shared at the outset and consensus sought. This component includes:
a. Establishing a Steering Committee
b. Data Collection
c. Analysis and interpretation of collected data
d. Once data has been collected, analyzed and interpreted for the impacted neighborhood, the community should be provided with the range of options their associated costs, and the feasibility of implementation of each range.
Noticing and Conducting a Public Meeting
These meetings, similar to the workshops previously identified, now serve the purpose of presenting results and implementation plans to the impacted neighborhood. These meetings should also serve to get a sense of where there may be opposition or disagreement and attempts to address any opposition in the implementation phase.
Scheduling and Conducting a Community Workshop
Assuming an appropriate level of concern regarding neighborhood traffic problems is registered, a community workshop should be held to ensure broad-based participation and input. The following are key elements for conducting community workshops:
· Determine appropriate date - including day of week and time of day; sensitivity to cultural and religious holidays.
· Identify appropriate location - accessibility of building, availability and safety of parking, proximity to impacted community, room amenities.
· Develop mailing list (if mailing beyond defined impacted boundaries).
· Identify other potential stakeholders i.e. nearby businesses, schools, other public facilities (hospitals, parks, post offices, churches).
· Provide proper advance notification (usually via post card and/or flyer, 10 - 15 days out).
· Does notification need to be bi (or multi) lingual?
· Establish and post an agenda for public meetings.
· Identify a moderator / facilitator.
· Prepare information packets, fact sheets and or other appropriate materials to be distributed and / or displayed at the public meetings. This includes at minimum providing information on the full range of traffic calming devices with appropriate discussion re: pros and cons for each specific tool to the targeted community sign-in sheets.
· Prepare and distribute meeting summaries to attendees after the meeting.
Approval Process
Once consensus has been reached, the next phase is approval from the appropriate regulatory bodies. These approvals require:
a. Preparation (and sign-off) of the Final Plan
b. Review by County Supervisorial Office and other appropriate county agencies (and or departments i.e. LA County Sheriff, LA County Fire, MTA, Caltrans)
Implementation Process
The final phase of an effective process is the actual implementation of a program. Throughout the process, neighborhoods should be aware of funding challenges and disruptions from construction. To the extent possible, construction mitigation measures should be a component of the implementation plan - as well as community outreach during construction. Implementation includes:
a. Funding Sources
b. Construction
c. Post Construction evaluation