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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1990-08-28 - AGENDA REPORTS - PROHIBITION OF TRUCK TRAVEL (2)AGENDA REPORT r City Manager Approval % V Item to be presented by: NEW BUSINESS John Medina DATE: August 28, 1990 SUBJECT: PROHIBITION OF .TRUCK TRAVEL DURING PEAK TRAVEL HOURS DEPARTMENT: Public Works BACKGROUND The City Council directed the Department of Public Works to investigate potential congestion improvement during peak travel hours from the prohibition of truck travel. Data was.collected for the evaluation at six locations where a high proportion of truck travel occurs. A truck classification survey showed that, on the average, 2.4 percent of the traffic is single unit trucks and 1.2 percent is semi -tractor trailers. The proportion of trucks during peak hours is somewhat higher than average in the morning peak and lower than average in the evening peak. Analysis of the data showed that the prohibition of all trucks during the peak travel hour would improve congestion by an average of about 4.percent. Removal of semi -tractor trailers alonewould only improve congestion by an average of 2 percent. This level of congestion reduction is not considered significant in consideration of the difficulty of enforcement, potential safety concerns during enforcement and probable controversy of the prohibition. It is recommended that truck travel prohibitions during peak hours not be established at this time. ATTACHMENT Staff Report KJ:gmm AP"fl I ° V5 ��' 0, Agenda Item: CITY OF SANTA CLARITA INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM TO: John Medina FROM: Ed Cline DATE: August 14, 1990 SUBJECT: PEAK -HOUR TRUCK PROHIBITIONS IN SANTA CLARITA REQUEST %ECE( V AUG 16 1990 n''SLIC WORKS 00ARTMENT CITY OF SANTA CLARITA The City Council requested that staff evaluate peak -hour truck operations on major streets to determine if a prohibition of truck travel during the peak hour would materially improve traffic operations. RECOMMENDATION It is recommended that a peak -hour truck prohibition not be instituted in Santa Clarita. Based on the study results, large trucks comprise a small proportion of all traffic on major streets in the City. Their removal during peak hours would improve traffic congestion by less than two to four percent. Enforcement of a truck ban would be problematic, and regulations prohibiting peak -hour truck traffic may be subject to challenge. CONDITIONS In order to adequately assess, the impact of truck travel in Santa Clarita, a 24-hour vehicle classification count was conducted at six locations on major streets within the City. The count locations, shown in Figure 1, were selected on major arterial streets subject to congestion which carry high volumes of truck traffic. The classification counts were conducted over a 24-hour period to obtain a full picture of truck operations. The type and number of vehicles counted at each location are listed- in Table 1. The total 24-hour volume ranged from over 51,600 vehicles on Soledad Canyon Road to about 28,400 vehicles on San Fernando Road. Personal vehicles comprised over 95 percent of all vehicles at each location, with the highest proportion of personal vehicles (97.2 percent) on Bouquet Canyon Road. Semi tractor -trailer trucks comprised about 1.2 percent of the total traffic demand at the count locations, with a range between 0.5 percent on Bouquet Canyon Road and 1.8 percent on Sierra Highway. Single -unit trucks varied from about 2.0 percent on San Fernando Road to 2.8 percent on Sierra Highway. The highest proportion of total trucks occurred on Sierra Highway (4.6 percent), and the lowest proportion was counted on Bouquet Canyon Road.(2.7 percent). 0 0 PEAK -HOUR TRUCK PROHIBITIONS IN SANTA CLARITA August 14, 1990 Page 2 The peak -hour vehicle distribution did not vary significantly from the daily average. However, a lower proportion of trucks were generally present during the evening peak hour in comparison to the daily average, and the morning peak hour generally had a slightly higher proportion of trucks than the daily average. As shown in Table 2,the volume of trucks in the peak hour was highest on Sierra Highway (156 trucks in the a.m. peak) and lowest on Lyons Avenue (25 trucks in the p.m. peak). The total peak -hour truck volume was less than 60 vehicles at all locations except Sierra Highway. DISCUSSION The regulation of truck traffic on City streets is authorized in the California Vehicle Code pursuant to: Section 21100(d) Rules and Regulations: Subject Matter - "Local authorities may adopt rules and regulations by ordinance or resolution regarding regulating traffic means of official traffic control devices meeting the requirements of Section 21400." Section 21101(c) Regulation of Highways - "Local authorities, for those highways under their jurisdiction, may adopt rules and regulations by ordinance or resolution on prohibiting the use of particular highways by certain vehicles, except as otherwise provided by the Public Utilities Commission pursuant to Article 2 of Chapter 5 of Part 1 of Division 1 of the Public Utilities Code." Section 35701(a) Any city or county for a residence district, may, by ordinance, prohibit the use of a street by any commercial vehicle or any vehicle exceeding a maximum gross weight limit, except with respect to any vehicle which is subject to Sections 1031 to 1036 inclusive of the Public Utilities Code and except with respect to vehicles used for the collection and transportation of garbage, rubbish or refuse --using traditionally used routes in San Diego County. Staff is unaware of any of these vehicle code sections being used for the regulation of truck traffic during peak hours in any Southern California community. TRUCK PROHIBITION EFFECTIVENESS The intent of prohibiting trucks during the peak -hour period is reduction of congestion at major bottleneck locations. The measure of congestion is traffic volume/capacity ratio which is used to identify level of service. A volume/capacity ratio of 0.60 or less indicates very good operating conditions, while a V/C ratio of 1.00 or higher is stop and go, breakdown conditions. Between 0.60 and 1.00, a higher number indicates an increasingly severe congestion level. 0 0 PEAK -HOUR TRUCK IN SANTA CLARITA August 14, 1990 Page 3 The calculation of V/C ratio includes all vehicles in the .traffic stream. However, personal vehicles and large trucks have different operating characteristics; consequently, equivalency units have been developed so that the two vehicles can be compared. Equivalency rates of -1-2 passenger cars.are used for single -unit trucks and 2-5 passenger cars for semi tractor -trailers. For grades of less than 2-3 percent, factors of 2.0 for single -unit trucks and 3.0 for semi's are recommended in the Highway Capacity Manual. The removal of trucks from the peak -hour traffic flow will not significantly improve congestion on major truck streets in Santa Clarita. As .shown in Table 3, the prohibition of all trucks will reduce volume/capacity ratio between .01 and .08, and the prohibition of semi's only will reduce the volume/capacity ratio between .01 and -.05. At the current level of peak -hour congestion on most truck streets, a reduction in congestion of less than .05 is not considered significant. Only Sierra Highway has enough peak -hour truck traffic to -be a significant component of the total traffic volume. Removal of truck traffic during peak hours at the other five count locations would not produce a noticeable improvement in congestion. It should be noted that the growth in traffic demand in Santa Clarita is about 2 percent per year. Consequently, the improvement to congestion resulting from removal of peak -hour trucks is equivalent to about two years' traffic growth. The enforcement of a peak -hour truck prohibition would be extremely difficult and labor- intensive. The act of ticketing truck drivers will produce momentary high levels of congestion and an increased accident risk. It is likely to produce challenges and significant opposition. CONCLUSION A prohibition on peak -hour trucks will produce a small improvement in congestion levels on most streets in Santa Clarita. Six of the most heavily -traveled truck routes. in the City were tested, and the potential improvement was generally less than 5 percent. Given the difficulty in enforcement and probable controversy of such a prohibition, the level of improvement is not sufficient to warrant such an action. EC:kj:hds Canyon e ,, '_ �.. {"Jsya Ii� •s�.� i `��i Country i •9 - (�l Mn. Y 1 '^` •.\ '� _ I "`�'. ! " Canyon CoulNy . ,` ! i SANTA CLARITA ' Valencu ices ✓� ✓ n..,.. i j I e� � .Som — •\ � ��2� i} • 1 ` Newhall LOCATION MAP_ , MWCK COMU LOCATICK KJ:gmm 08/13/90-3 TABLE 1 TRUCK OPERATIONS STUDY VEHICLE DISTRIBUTION NUMBER OF VEHICLES PER DAY PERSONAL SINGLE TOTAL LOCATION VEHICLE (1) BUS 2 UNIT TRUCK (3) TRACTOR -TRAILER VEHICLES Soledad Canyon Road at Whites Canyon Road 490652 194 1,200 597 51,643 Sierra Highway at Jake's Way 46,158 180 1,378 885 48,601 Valencia Boulevard at McBean Parkway 32,826 98 703 287 33,914 Bouquet Canyon Road at Newhall Ranch Road 48,925 71 19094 254 50,344 Lyons Avenue at Orchard Village 27,361 101 799 482 28,743 San Fernando Road at 15th Street 27,258 118 558 467 28,401 TOTAL: 232,180 762 5,732 2,972 241,646 • %.of Total Vehicles 95.1 0.3 2.4 1.2 100.0 (1) Motorcycle, automobile, pickup truck (2) School bus, motor coach, transit coach (3)' Two to four axels KJ:gmm 08/13/90-3 TABLE 2 TRUCK OPERATIONS STUDY PEAK HOUR VEHICLE DEMAND TOTAL TOTAL TOTAL PERSONAL VEHICLES SINGLE UNIT TRUCK SEMI TRACTOR TRAILER LOCATION PEAK HOUR DIRECTION NUMBER % NUMBER % NUMBER % Soledad Canyon Road at Whites Canyon Road Sierra Highway at Jake's Way Valencia Boulevard at McBean Parkway Bouquet Canyon Road at Newhall Ranch Road Lyons Avenue at Orchard Village San Fernando Road at 15th Street Note: Bus Volumes not shown KJ:gmm 08/13/90-2 AM Eastbound 1547 94.4 54 3.3 29 1.8 PM Eastbound 1958 96.9 30 1.5 24 1.2 AM Southbound 2517 93.6 78 2.9 78 2.9 PM Northbound 2256 95.1 87 3.7 27 1.1 AM Westbound 1368 96.7 20 1.4 14 1.0 PM Eastbound 1502 97.0 33 2.1 12 0.8 AM Southbound 2256 98.6 21 0.9 9 0.4 PM Northbound 2062 96.7 59 2.8 10 0.5 AM Westbound 997 94.4 28 2.7 26 2.5 PM Eastbound 1252 98.0 19 1.5 6 0.5 AM Southbound 1244 95.7 27 2.1 25 1.9 PM Northbound 1266 96.9 13 1.0 21 1.6 40 • TABLE 3 TRUCK OPERATIONS STUDY POTENTIAL REDUCTION IN VOLUME/CAPACITY RATIO FROM REMOVAL OF TRUCKS * With the planned widening, values will be reduced by half. NUMBER VOLUME/CAPACITY IMPROVEMENT BY REMOVAL OF: LOCATION PEAK HOUR OF LANES ALL TRUCKS SEMIS ONLY Soledad Canyon Road AM 3 .04 .02 at Whites Canyon Road PM 3 .03 .02 Sierra Highway AM 3 .08 .05 at Jakes Way PM 3 .05 .02 Valencia Boulevard AM 2 .03 .OZ at McBean Parkway PM 2 .03 .01 Bouquet Canyon Road AM 3 .01 .01 at Newhall Ranch Road PM 3 .03 .01 Lyons Avenue AM 2 .04 .02 at Orchard Village PM 2 .02 .01 San Fernando Road * AM 1 .08 .05 at 15th Street PM 1 .06 .04 Is * With the planned widening, values will be reduced by half.