Dear Councilmembers, At tomorrow's meeting, the Council will be considering the proposed NTMP for Marmona Drive and several of its adjacent streets. In considering this matter, I respectfully ask for your consideration of the following: 1. As you know, the overwhelming majority of the residents of Baywood Avenue oppose the installation of a speed hump on our street. We believe that a speed hump will create additional noise and pollution that will - unnecessarily - materially and adversely affect our quality of life. Further, we believe the issues the speed hump is intended to address are no longer issues as a result of the actions taken in December 2017 by this Council. Attached is a copy of the letter submitted to the City Council in March of 2018 by the residents of Baywood Avenue requesting no speed hump on our street. 2. When comparing the traffic data collected by the City Staff in May 2018 versus the traffic data collected in June 2016, it is clear that the No Left Turn sign installed on Baywood Avenue in December 2017 has virtually solved the Baywood Avenue volume and speed issues reflected in the June 2016 traffic data. On Baywood Avenue, east bound speeds went from 30.6 mph to 26.9 mph and east bound volumes went from 913 to 431 - a more than 50% decrease! In fact, it appears that the May 2018 data would not meet the criteria for a NTMP. 3. Please make the traffic measures implemented in December 2017 permanent. As evidenced by the May 2018 data collected by the City Staff, these measures have done exactly what the resident proponents and the City Council intended for them to do - significantly reduce both traffic volume and speeds. In fact, the success of these measures has exceeded the expectations of many residents in our neighborhood and have widespread support throughout the Willows (judging by the lack of complaints regarding traffic or the measures themselves I have heard from residents - both in person or online). I am curious if this correlates to what you have been hearing from residents. 4. To address the concerns of some residents with regard to the safety of school bike traffic, extending the No Left Turn restriction on Baywood Avenue to add a 7 am - 9 am window could be of significant help. This would reduce the amount of east bound traffic during the morning school commute hours. Thank you for all of the time and effort that each of you and the City Staff have expended to address the traffic issues in our neighborhood. The December 2017 measures have been a tremendous - and cost-effective - success and I strongly support their continuance. regards, Amar Murugan 130 Baywood Avenue (image/jpeg attachment: Baywood_Petition.jpeg )
