On Tuesday April 27th, the community participated in a public meeting for the Neighborhood Traffic Management Program, hosted by the City of Houston Public Works department. The meeting focused on the traffic study of speed cushions that have been installed in Woodland Heights since June of last year.
A crowd of engaged residents gathered in the library of Travis Elementary to ask questions and comment on the plan. Notables in attendance included CM Karla Cisneros, CM Michael Kubosh and Khang Nguyen, PWE Assistant Director, Traffic Management Branch.
Gary Drabek, NTMP Program Manager, briefed the gathered crowd on the results of their speed data collection, offering an overview of the before-and-after traffic study count data. That was followed by an animated question and answer session.
Drabek explained that residents who would like deeper or more complete traffic study data than what they presented in the meeting can obtain complete data using the city's GIS Interactive Traffic Counts Map. All data collected by Public Works is fully available to the public. Mr Dabek offered to distribute a cheat sheet on using that system to anyone who is so inclined.
Currently, Public Works is collecting comments regarding the installation. All comments must be submitted to Public Works by May 14th.
Mr Dabek placed particular emphasis on the importance of the comments in helping the city evaluate the installation and plot a path forward. However, he also reminded the community that the comments are not votes. Public Works will use the comments to make a recommendation to the city council, but will not determine their recommendation based on numbers of comments for or against.
The city has already mailed every household in the neighborhood a package that includes a comment form. They seek the opinion of each household using a simple poll:
- Support the devices
- Support with modifications
- Do NOT support the devices
They also seek comment about the installation itself. That could include suggestions for where traffic cushions might be added or removed, to further refine the approach. Comments can be submitted by post mail or online at the following web page.
https://services.publicworks.houstontx.gov/ntmp-feedback.
Only one comment per household is allowed. Comments must be submitted by May 14th. Questions about the program and requests for the GIS cheat sheet can be directed to ntmp@houstontx.gov.