Traffic calm enough on upper Welburn, study says

In a move that may spur outrage no matter the outcome, the Gilroy City Council on Monday decided to reverse course on upper Welburn and remove contentious No Turn signs installed earlier this year.
The signs, erected to curtail speeding and traffic congestion on upper Welburn, prohibit motorists from turning onto Welburn Avenue from Mantelli Drive and when travelling on Welburn Avenue, from turning left onto westbound Mantelli Drive.
A timeline for the signs removal has yet to be announced.
The City Council also directed staff to have the General Plan Advisory Committee review upper Welburn’s designation as a collector street and to revise striping on the street to make it safer for cyclists and pedestrians. The issue of installing stop signs at Welburn and Taryn Lane will return to Council at a future meeting.
“The No Turn signs were the elephant in the room,” said Gilroy Mayor Roland Velasco the day after the marathon council session where dozens of residents packed city hall to voice their concern over a hyper local traffic issue that has been brewing for years in the city’s growing north-west district.
The partial intersection closure at Welburn and Mantelli was part of a series of traffic calming measures spurred by a group of 37 households on upper Welburn and approved by the city council last year but which drew ire from nearby residents disturbed by the shift in traffic.
The turning restrictions were rescinded in a 5-0 vote, with Mayor Pro Tempore Dion Bracco recused because he lives in the area. Council member Peter Leroe-Munoz was absent from the meeting.
The death knell of the turning restrictions was the traffic calming study by Hexagon Transportation Consultants, which showed the No Turn signs, while decreasing traffic volume on Welburn Avenue south of Mantelli Drive, increased traffic on Mantelli Drive and nearby Ousley Drive.
The turning restrictions also did not noticeably change vehicle speeds on upper Welburn but had the unintended consequence of increasing speeds on Muir Drive/Ousley Drive by 63 percent.  
The report speculated the cause for the rise could be frustrated drivers trying to make up time due to the traffic changes.
“Hexagon recommends the removal of the partial closure of Welburn Avenue at Mantelli Drive,”  the report said. “Hexagon recommends that the Mantelli Drive/Welburn Avenue intersection be returned to its former design, which allows all turning movements.”
To come up with their recommendations, the consultants used traffic volume data and speed counts collected during one week in late November and early December, before the turning restrictions were implemented, and during one week in late March and early April after the restrictions were installed.
Counts were taken during peak school drop-off hours in the morning and afternoon.
A comparison of the before and after traffic counts showed the partial street closure reduced daily traffic volume on upper Welburn Avenue by an average of 469 vehicles per day on weekdays and 319 vehicles per day on weekends.
Welburn Avenue between Ousley Drive and Delta Drive showed a reduction of 251 vehicles per day on weekdays and 201 vehicles on weekends.
Meanwhile, traffic volume increased on Mantelli Drive between Welburn Avenue and Del Rey by 540 vehicles per day on weekdays and 483 vehicles per day on weekends
Ousley Drive showed a 99 vehicle per day increase on weekdays and 71 vehicles per day on weekends.
While the partial closure decreased traffic volume on upper Welburn by about 60 percent, the street had relatively light traffic flow of approximately 762 vehicles per day during weekdays to begin with, before the restrictions were put in place.
According to the report, “Many cities within the Bay Area (such as Morgan Hill, Sunnyvale, Livermore, San Mateo, etc) have adopted a policy stating that residential roadways with less than 1,000 vehicles per day are already lightly traveled roadways and should not be considered for traffic calming devices to reduce traffic volumes.”
Moreover, upper Welburn is classified as a collector road in the city’s General Plan, which serves to move traffic from local roads to arterial roads – in this case Santa Teresa Boulevard.
The street’s partial closure puts it in non-compliance with its collector designation.
The traffic study also stated the new striping of a 3.6-foot shoulder on one side of upper Welburn and a 7-foot parking lane on the other – narrowing the travel lane widths to 10 feet–should be revised because the large shoulder area may attract unsafe pedestrian and cyclist activity.
Councilman Dan Harney suggested striping be amended according to Complete Streets, a series of guidelines that promote safety and accessibility for all users, motorists, bikers and pedestrians.
The upper Welburn temporary traffic calming measures and monitoring were approved by the city council for $25,000 at the November 21 meeting last year after nearly three years of discussions between upper Welburn residents and city staff and various city officials. Not all of the measures, including “No Parking” and “Deer Crossing” signs have yet been installed.
“There is an issue of speeding on Welburn, but I approve of removing the signs,” said Alan Jensen, one of many impacted residents who spoke on Monday. “We need to work together to adhere to the speeding laws. Lets open up that street and as neighbors let’s obey the speed limit.”
“Sometimes it’s messy watching government in action,” said Velasco. “Maybe we should have done it differently–hindsight is always 20/20–but I think this played out well enough.” The mayor added that a good thing to come out of it was the development of a citywide traffic calming policy later this summer.