Rasely - Operations & Maintenance assigned this issue to PW Admin

The City has conducted several assessments of the intersection at Valley and Sunrise over the years, with a previous study conducted in 2013; and another study conducted in 2015 that focused on the whole Valley Road corridor. Since those studies the City had reduced the speed limit for portions of the road that were signed at 35 MPH to 25 MPH. We have added a radar speed sign to reduce speeds coming into the neighborhood service center. We have also applied for Federal grants to improve the entire corridor including the intersection, with no success.

At the request of the public the City conducted another focused traffic study this year to analyze the intersection of concern given the likely increase in traffic compared to 2013. The results of the study concluded that the traffic warrants established by law in the MUTCD are not met and that a 4-way stop is not warranted.

There are several conditions that have to be met per federal design standards outlined in the MUTCD (the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices) to warrant an all-way stop sign. The conditions include:

1) Traffic accident history caused by the intersection deficiencies. The prescribed number of accidents is very high (five or more in a 12-month period), however, we have had very few accidents in the past few years looking back to 2017 and those accidents were not injury causing.

2) Minimum vehicle/pedestrian volumes can trigger the requirement. We look for 300 vehicles per hour for any 8 hour period of an average day on the major street (Valley in this case) approach. Combined vehicular/pedestrian/bicyclist volume entering intersection from the minor street (Sunrise Drive) must average at least 200 units per hour for the same 8 hours, with an average delay to the minor street vehicles of 30 seconds or more during the highest hour. Also, if the 85th-percentile approach speed of the major street traffic exceeds 40 mph, the minimum vehicular volume warrants are reduced to 70 percent of the values previously stated.

We hired a traffic counter and consultant to perform the data collection and analysis and they found that at the peak hour (3:15-4:15 PM) of the study period Valley volumes were found to be at most 227 vehicles and Sunrise volumes were found to be at most 109 vehicles. Delays at the intersection were on average less than 30 seconds. One accident was found in the WSDOT accident collision data that resulted in no injuries since 2017. None of the warrants were met. This was the 3rd time the City has conducted such a study.

We have added additional signage at each stop sign on Sunrise indicating "CROSS TRAFFIC DOES NOT STOP" to inform road users of the intersection controls. We continue to look at solutions to improve the intersection that do not involve additional stop signs.

This response is extremely concerning. To summarize, the city is waiting for someone to get hurt and for more damage to vehicles to occur before action can be taken. This issue already sounds like it’s wasted significant city resources that could have easily been immediately resolved in 2013 by digging 2 holes and putting in 2 low-cost signs.

I don’t think that the analysis the city has conducted is at all prudent, safe, nor what would be expected of a public works department that is tasked with maintaining safe and efficient roads. To be honest, this sounds like negligence and it would be an absolute tragedy to wait for a citizen to get hurt before taking action. To think that a persons life would be permanently altered (or lost) because someone at the public works didn’t follow what their gut is telling them the right thing to do is appalling. It seems like common sense says the right thing to do is to increase caution and safety at this intersection that many in the community have called for for years.

Let’s strive to do better.

Thank you for submitting your concerned comments to the City. They have been logged. The application of a 4-way stop at this intersection has been evaluated by a consultant multiple times and it was determined the site conditions do not meet the warrants and traffic safety data do not show a history of accidents or collisions. There is currently no plan to create a 4-way stop control. This intersection has garnered much concern from the neighborhood....before an action could be taken the parking configuration fronting Bay Hay/Post Office needs to be addressed so that postal carrier trucks do not block both the sight lines and a new STOP sign, or, occupy the space where a STOP sign could be placed. The department will be reaching out to the post office about the parking issue.