New data shows progress on decreasing cut-through traffic

Vernon Miles August 10, 2022 at 11:15am

Ahead of a community meeting tonight to discuss the next phase of the Duke Street Traffic Mitigation pilot, the city has released new data showing the promising results of Phase 1.

The pilot earlier this year changed signal timing, adding green time on Duke Street and Quaker Lane from 4-6 p.m. to encourage drivers to stay on the arterial roads rather than cutting through neighborhood streets to get around traffic and access Telegraph Road.

The report said the goal was a 20% shift, pushing cut-through traffic from the neighborhood streets onto the main roads. The pilot was hit twice that goal

“The final results show a 41% decrease in cut-through traffic on neighborhood streets and a 78% increase in cut-through traffic using Quaker Lane,” the report said.

The report also noted specific intersections where changes made the most impact. After a No Left Turn sign was added to Yale Drive, cut-through traffic dropped by 89%.

While traffic declined on the residential streets, it went up by 78% on Quaker Lane.

The street that benefitted the least from the project was West Taylor Run Parkway, where cut-through traffic only saw a 12% decline. The report noted that both before and after the pilot, 72% of the traffic on this street is cut-through traffic.

The next stage of the pilot will target West Taylor Run Parkway specifically.

“The City is talking to the community about Phase II of the pilot, which includes reinstituting Phase I as well as restricting access to the Telegraph Road ramp from West Taylor Run Parkway,” the city said on the project website. “The goals of this phase would be to further reduce cut-through traffic on neighborhood streets as well as test traffic patterns prior to implementation of the larger Duke Street at West Taylor Run and Telegraph Ramp project. Should the pilot move forward, it could begin as soon as September 2022.”

City staff is scheduled to discuss the project tonight with the Clover College Park Civic Association tonight (Wednesday) at 7 p.m. The meeting is open to the public and will be posted online.

A public meeting hosted by city staff is scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday) at 7 p.m. to provide an overview of the pilot, answer questions and receive feedback.