Residents can provide feedback on the city’s draft local roadway safety plan through Sept. 19.
The city of Healdsburg is working on a draft local road safety plan (LRSP) and is seeking public input. The public review and input period for the draft plan ends on Sept. 19.
In 2020, the city was awarded a state grant from the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to perform a LRSP.
The LRSP includes a citywide analysis of the roadways in Healdsburg, current collision patterns, high-risk roadway characteristics and a series of mitigation measures to help reduce crashes and overall collision severity.
The creation of the plan is a collaborative process between city council members, public works, the Healdsburg Police Department, the Healdsburg Unified School District, local private schools, the Sonoma County Transportation Authority, county health services and transit, Caltrans and others.
According to the executive summary of the plan, the creation of the LRSP is a collaborative process that is similar to a systemic safety analysis report and in that they both follow the five “E’s” of traffic safety, engineering, enforcement, education, emergency services and emerging technologies.
As part of the LRSP creation, a stakeholder working group was formed with the city as the lead on the project.
Based on stakeholder meetings and a five-year collision analysis of the city, the LRSP will address five challenge areas: bicyclists, intersections, pedestrians, distracted driving and aggressive driving/speeding.
To address these areas the following strategies are recommended, according to the draft plan:
– Apply low-cost safety countermeasures at current locations experiencing collisions and systemically at locations with similar risks (comprehensive approach).
– Enforce actions that reduce high-risk behaviors to include speeding, distracted roadway usage and driving under the influence.
– Educate all road users on safe behaviors.
– Improve emergency response times.
– Utilize emerging technologies in conveying and collecting information from the roadway users in an effort to improve safety and operations.
Priority areas for safety improvements include Healdsburg Avenue, Sherman Street, Dry Creek Road, Matheson Street and March Avenue among others.
People can view the draft plan and provide feedback here.
For questions regarding the plan, contact Curt Bates with the Healdsburg Public Works Department at 707-431-3346.
For Spanish speakers who would like to review the plan or provide feedback, contact the city clerk’s office at 707-431-3316 to request to meet with a bilingual city staff member and a representative from public works.
