Embudo Canyon Neighborhood Association

Embudo Canyon Neighborhood Association (ECNA) Meeting Minutes,  12 May 2011

The meeting was called to order by ECNA Secretary  David Zeuch  at 7:05 PM at the Jeffrey Cole Memorial Police Substation.  Officers present were Ray Dymale (Vice President), David Zeuch (Secretary), and Suzanne Kersten and Nena-Joy Almodovar (Directors at Large).

Owing to the presence of a guest speaker, Mr. John Kolessar (Director of Traffic Engineering for the City of Albuquerque), Old and New Business were deferred until later.  Mr. Kolessar gave a presentation that was so detailed,  interesting—and often, so surprising—that it dominated most of the meeting.

GUEST SPEAKER

Mr. John Kolessar, Director of Traffic Engineering, City of Albuquerque.

Mr. Kolessar emphasized at the outset that as a citizen who lives on a city street with traffic, he is “one of us,” not the enemy.

Traffic engineering is mostly a science.  Though there are some politics involved—along with some emotions—traffic engineering is largely driven by decades of data collection and scientific analysis.

Across the United States, traffic is managed in accordance with The Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), which is available for public viewing on the Web.  By using this manual nationwide, what we see from street-to-street, city-to-city, and state- to-state are essentially the same traffic control devices.

First, Mr. Kolessar tried to dispel five myths about the Traffic Engineering Department

(1)    Traffic Engineering has NOTHING to do with the city’s “red light cameras.”  They are operated under a contract managed by the Albuquerque Police Department (APD), and so problems with the cameras and their associated policies should be taken up with APD.

(2)    The city’s traffic signals ARE synchronized.  However, there are many things that can cause to signals to temporarily become out of synchronization.  Emergency vehicles can preempt signals, putting the signals out of “synch” for a while.  Similarly, pedestrians pushing the “Walk” button at an intersection can also put the signals temporarily out of synch.  It takes time to recover from these “disturbances.”

(3)    Surprisingly, traffic signs do little to alter driver behavior.  Indeed, it seems that a surprising number of  drivers actually never “see” traffic signs.  The purpose of signs is for enforcement, which has a greater effect on bringing careless drivers to see the error of their ways and change their behaviors.

(4)    Much though some of us like them, speed bumps DO NOT appreciably slow traffic down.

(5)    Stop signs do not appreciably slow traffic down.  Nor are they intended to allow pedestrians to cross streets.  Rather, they are simply there to allow traffic from side streets to safely enter.

This was an interesting statistic:  85% of all drivers cause less than 1% of all traffic accidents.  They actually need little in the way of  traffic devices to control their behavior.  15% of all drivers cause the remaining 99% of all accidents.

Of that 15% of problem drivers, 68% are under 25 years of age.  Another 18% are men under the age of 49 years old.  12 % of all accidents are caused by women with children in the car, i.e., distracted.

Mr. Kolessar also explained the new, city-wide “sign audit” that is underway in Albuquerque.  Once the audit is complete, signs will be “redone” across the city, making them larger and brighter and, overall, much easier to see.

After his presentation, Mr. Kolessar kindly made himself available for a lengthy question and answer session which took up much of the meeting’s remaining available.  In particular, he explained why he LIKES Albuquerque’s growing trend toward increasing use of “traffic circles,” and gave a particularly lucid explanation of how they are supposed to work.

OLD BUSINESS

Treasurer’s Report

As of 12 May 2011, ECNA had $1,401.10 in its savings account, and $117.07 in its checking account.

New trafficsigns on eastbound Indian School at Tramway

Sally Mayer directed Dave Zeuch to the appropriate person in the Traffic Engineering Department (Mr. Dan Korbin) to request that  better signage be added to the eastbound lanes of Indian School where they intersect Tramway Blvd.  Consequently, new signs were finally added to indicate that there is only ONE left turn lane from eastbound Indian School to northbound Tramway Blvd.  The line markings were also improved and the arrows in the relevant lanes were repainted to further emphasize this point.

Many ECNA members have noted for years that many drivers think that there is a double left turn lane from eastbound Indian School onto northbound Tramway.  The new signage is likely to improve this dangerous situation.

ECNA/APD workshop on crime prevention

The subject workshop is still planned for May 14 at the Jeff Russell Memorial Police Substation at 9:30 AM.  It was decided that planning on our part was essentially done, with no additional assignments given out to the ECNA board.

NEW BUSINESS

It was decided that planning for the June 4 ECNA picnic  could be better done “off line.”  Judy Minks volunteered to solicit assistance from other members to take care of the final details, and to acquire needed tables, chairs, etc. at a later date.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned by Dave Zeuch at approximately 8:50PM.

Respectfully submitted,

David H. Zeuch, Secretary