The City of Hampton, located in the Hampton Roads area of southeastern Virginia, began residential traffic calming initiatives in 1997. The study area is located in the northeast quadrant of the City of Hampton near Langley Air Force Base, a major employer in the area. Traffic volume data collected in 1999 on Clover Street, the primary cut-through street, found that over 4,500 vehicles per day were using this street which would be expected to generate only 230 vehicles per day. After attending several neighborhood meetings to present various ideas and get feedback from the residents, the City realized that the only way to eliminate the cut-through problem would be to close off all six cut-through streets. In order to do this, the major intersection that the cut through streets avoided would have to be able to handle the additional traffic during the morning and afternoon peak hours. The paper discusses how the city handled the closing of the six cut-through streets, the bolstering up of the major intersection, neighborhood feedback, and it relates the pleasure of the neighborhood in finding they had their quiet, child friendly neighborhood back.
Abstract