John Mack - Newtown Supervisor
Frost Lane Traffic Study

Frost Lane Traffic Study

Recently, a resident of Frost Lane complained to the Township about speeding traffic on her street. As you may know, Goodnoe School is located on Frost Lane, which the resident dubbed “Frost Freeway.” It’s a 25 mph zone and during certain school hours the speed limit is 15 mph. So any speeding on that street is a concern.

When I made an inquiry regarding this issue, Kurt Ferguson, the Township Manager informed me: "Typically these traffic issues are investigated by our staff.  We have the ability to measure traffic speed, total cars, as well as looking as site lines, etc. Typically this would be assigned to staff to investigate and to report results to the board."

Within a few days, the Police Department performed a “stealth stat” survey of the traffic flow on Frost Lane. Mr. Ferguson described how this is done at the March 14, 2018, Board of Supervisors meeting:

Some of the results are summarized in the following charts:

Here are some more details:

  • On the Thursday-Friday survey period, 102 of 851 cars (12%) were going more 10 mph over the speed limit when the posted speed limit was 25 mph.

  • On the Friday-Saturday survey period, 914 of 3,096 cars (29.5%) were going more 10 mph over the speed limit. Most of those cars were surveyed on when the posted speed limit was 25 mph.

  • The school zone area was done on a Thursday and Friday. There were a total of 2,643 cars with 1,070 of those cars going over 10 mph over the posted speed limit of 15 mph.  That's obviously a concerning number.

Mr. Ferguson said the Township will do speed enforcement on selected Saturdays and during the 15 mph school zone speed limit as well.

UPDATE (June 6, 2018): According to Mr. Ferguson in the full report, "The two (2) signs most in need of replacement are the School "Speed Limit when Flashing" signs. Those signs are the responsibility of the school. I spoke with Doug Taylor from the school district. Council Rock is planning to update these signs throughout the Township. I would anticipate that these will be upgraded by summer."

Yesterday, I noticed that these signs have been replaced as shown in the photos below.

 

Posted on 15 Mar 2018, 14:20 - Category: Traffic