Title
Amend City Code - Section 36-158, Schedule I, Local Speed Limits at 27 Locations
Description
This report provides the Transportation, Infrastructure and Planning Subcommittee with information about proposed record keeping and local speed limit changes at 27 locations and requests to recommend City Council adoption of recommended changes to Phoenix City Code, Section 36-158, Schedule I, Local Speed Limits.
THIS ITEM IS FOR CONSENT ACTION.
Report
Summary
Speed limits are established under Arizona Revised Statutes, section 28-703, which requires an “engineering study and traffic investigation.” The Phoenix City Code and Charter require that all local speed limits on City streets be approved by City Council in the form of an amendment to Phoenix City Code.
The Street Transportation Department (Streets) is recommending 26 record keeping updates and one speed limit change for the 27 locations listed in Attachment A and adoption of recommended changes to Phoenix City Code, Section 36-158, Schedule I, Local Speed Limits in Attachment B. Streets staff has conducted a comprehensive review of the speed limit ordinance and has noted locations where speed limits posted on City streets do not match the speed limits included in the current ordinance. In addition to these record keeping changes, there are streets or street segments that are being removed from the ordinance as they are either private or no longer part of the City’s street network. As with all recommended speed limit changes, they are based on traffic investigations conducted with the engineering judgment of Streets staff.
Streets actively and regularly reviews posted speed limits and reconciles any discrepancies with the ordinance. Field reviews are typically conducted by the Streets Traffic Services Investigations team, but most recently this effort has been supported by the Universal Right-of-Way Inspections team. Field reviews over the last year have been completed for over 700 street segments. In April 2021, findings and corrections from approximately half of the reviews conducted were presented to City Council and adopted. This update includes findings and corrections from the second half of the reviews conducted.
This item was previously recommended for Council approval by the Transportation, Infrastructure, and Planning Subcommittee on April 20, 2022. However, following that action, Streets staff since discovered that the current speed limit ordinance last approved by City Council on April 21, 2021 (G-6839) does not accurately reflect all speed limit ordinance updates previously approved by City Council over the last few years. In response, Streets staff conducted a review and made necessary adjustments to ensure that Attachment B includes the 27 current updates, as well as the ordinance updates previously approved by Council in 2020 and 2021.
Concurrence/Previous Council Action
The Transportation, Infrastructure and Planning Subcommittee recommended approval of the 27 current updates on April 20, 2022, by a vote of 3-0.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Manager Mario Paniagua and the Street Transportation Department.