Neighborhood Traffic Safety

Several of Monterey Park's residential neighborhoods adjoin commercial business districts. Residents have expressed concern on many occasions about commercial traffic driving through the neighborhoods. Cars use local streets to avoid congestion on Atlantic Boulevard, Garvey Avenue, Garfield Avenue, and Pomona Boulevard / Potrero Grande Drive. Concerns include excessive vehicle speed, high traffic volumes during peak evening hours, and associated dangers to pedestrians.

Cities frequently develop neighborhood protection plans reduce the impacts of traffic on local residential streets by either slowing the speed of traffic or reducing the volume of cut through traffic by making it harder for such vehicles to reach the residential streets. To accomplish this, the city will establish a Neighborhood Traffic Control Program, with the overall objective of improving the livability of neighborhoods. Specific impacts to be addressed by the program include high non-local cut-through traffic volumes, high speeds, truck traffic intrusion, demonstrated accident history, and related concerns.

Neighborhood Traffic Control Program

The program process will ensure that every neighborhood with demonstrated problems and overall community support has equal access to neighborhood traffic control measures. The program depends upon citizen involvement and may vary from year to year based upon funding available for neighborhood traffic control. The process includes the nine following steps:

  • Step One
    Identify Candidate Streets / Neighborhoods
  • Step Two
    Preliminary Screening and Evaluation
  • Step Three
    Survey/Petition Affected Persons
  • Step Four
    Engineering Analysis
  • Step Five
    Neighborhood Meetings
  • Step Six
    Prioritization and Funding Assessment
  • Step Seven
    Develop Demonstration Project
  • Step Eight
    Determination of Permanent Project
  • Step Nine
    Monitoring

Types of Traffic Control Devices

Certain types of traffic control devices, such as stop signs, require satisfaction of specific criteria to justify their installation. The city will need to study conditions within a neighborhood to determine if installation of such traffic control devices is warranted.The types of neighborhood traffic control devices that can be used to regulate, warn and guide traffic in residential areas includes the following:

  • Diverters
  • Semi-diverters or partial street closures
  • Chokers
  • Turn restrictions
  • Turn channelization
  • Stop signs
  • Traffic circles
  • Speed humps
  • Special pavement
  • On-street parking striping
  • Bikeway striping
  • Warning or advisory signs

Neighborhood Protection Plan

Implementation of a successful neighborhood protection plan requires consultation with the residents of the neighborhood because the associated physical modifications often result in modified neighborhood travel patterns. To discourage cut-through traffic, the neighborhood streets must be made less attractive as alternate routes. This typically means making the street more difficult to access and slower to drive on, changes which residents will also experience. As appropriate, measures will be implemented on a temporary basis to test their effectiveness and gauge community reaction.

Goal Two

Provide a local street system that accommodates current and future traffic volumes.

  • Policy 2.1
    Implement all circulation improvements pursuant to the Master Circulation Plan shown in Figure C-2 (PDF) and described in Table C-2 (PDF).
  • Policy 2.2
    Pursue unique funding sources from regional, state, and federal agencies for future circulation improvements.
  • Policy 2.3
    Require full roadway dedications and improvements (or in-lieu fees payment of fees in place of physical improvements) at the time of development plan approval.
  • Policy 2.4
    Allow Kern Avenue to be vacated to accommodate well-designed development proposals involving properties adjacent to Kern Avenue.
  • Policy 2.5
    Implement intelligent transportation system technologies to improve traffic flow.
  • Policy 2.6
    Establish and maintain a Neighborhood Traffic Control Program.
  • Policy 2.7
    Work with regional agencies to pursue innovative strategies for monitoring traffic volumes.
  • Policy 2.8
    Establish and maintain truck routes consistent with Figure C-3 (PDF).