While the countywide transportation committee tasked with solving local traffic woes unanimously approved a policy statement last month, a couple of policy oversights were identified during last week’s meeting.
Kendall County, Boerne and Fair Oaks Transportation Committee member Northern Hendricks, who took on the task of compiling and keeping track of all recommendations, noted a policy recommendation urging local municipalities to prioritize roundabouts was missing from the draft reviewed last month. Ben Eldredge noted there was discussion about incorporating the city of Forth Worth as an example to incorporate policy stating intersection solutions that aren’t roundabouts should be justified rather than assumed.
Bobby Balli, who represents the viewpoint of Fair Oaks Ranch residents and was nominated to clean up the committee’s draft policy, noted that policy statements should be clear and concise.
“Folks, this stuff doesn’t have teeth anyway. The cities can do whatever they well please to. Not that they will, but it’s a policy statement,” Balli said, noting the committee simply is drafting a policy statement encouraging local municipalities to problem solve in a particular way rather than issuing any formal policy.
However, committee Co-chair Don Durden said the group is working to bolster change in the way transportation issues are addressed. So, he said explaining the benefits of roundabouts was warranted.
Jeff Carroll, who is Boerne’s director of development services, sought clarification on what the committee was recommending, questioning whether this roundabout renaissance applied to two intersecting subdivision streets or only to intersections with arterial roads.
Further, Durden pointed out the county is limited by Texas Department of Transportation ownership of roads. He said if the state agency isn’t included in the discussion, then there’s likely to be little headway.
“We can pass all the policies we want,” Durden said. “But, if the policy doesn’t include encouraging the affected political subdivision – city or county – to encourage TxDOT to use roundabouts, then our policy is pretty much emasculated. So, I think all of those things need to be considered.”
Hendricks suggested the committee veer toward the vague while encouraging local municipalities to be innovative first when looking at intersection improvements. Committee Co-chair Bob Manning reminded members the reason the committee specifically mentioned roundabouts was because the state seemingly has practiced active avoidance of them, saying state agencies have seen roundabouts as something “weird that’s done in Europe.”
Beyond the roundabout policy review, Hendricks noted a couple of committee-sourced projects that addressed interconnectivity between neighborhoods during peak school traffic.
The committee previously had expressed a desire to increase interconnectivity among neighborhoods where gates create only one entrance and exit to smaller, disjointed neighborhoods around the city. This concept appears to have been missing from the daft policy approved by the committee, as Hendricks noted it was left in limbo after lengthy discussion.
Manning said there is an interconnectivity section in the existing policy recommendation, but Balli noted the current draft doesn’t include the timing of existing in gates in subdivisions.
Committee member Jonah Evans suggested any policy recommendation about the opening of gates between neighborhoods during peak school traffic hours be worded with caution to avoid encouraging subdivisions to install timed gates where they don’t already exist. Carroll pointed out that existing gated subdivisions that don’t time their gates for school pickup and drop off currently have their bus stops outside the neighborhood, which is something the committee would like to solve.
Once policy amendments were discussed, the conversation among committee members focused in on suggestions to reroute traffic through the use of signage – a concept that seemed to fall out of favor after discussion.
First, it was suggested signage be placed near the intersection of Farm-to-Market Road 3351 and Highway 46 to encourage drivers looking for the interstate to use FM 3351 rather than 46. A few committee members noted some residents of FOR may not appreciate having traffic directed through their city and that signs exist and seldom work considering most drivers today are using GPS.
“We could put 100 signs up, but if their GPS doesn’t tell you to go that way, people aren’t going to follow the signs,” Carroll said.
Then, a sign was suggested on Highway 46 headed into Boerne directing people to Herff Road to access the interstate. Evans noted this would help with the committee’s goal of diverting traffic around downtown Boerne, avoiding the River Road and Main Street intersection, but committee member John Kight said this alternate route may be overshooting and elongating people’s trip.
In the end, both signage suggestions were dropped from the committee’s consideration after it was decided signage can’t compete with GPS and most of these trips are taken by people who know which routes to take.
“I think this is an example, and the last two are very good examples of how you can’t give people directions on where they need to go,” Balli said. “Most of this traffic that you’re trying to influence is regular traffic every day. … “These are instructional signs that we’re talking about, and the people are doing this five times a week should know the fastest route.”
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