The City of Hermitage Board of Commissioners held a special meeting on Monday, July 13th to discuss a new city wide traffic-calming program. Under the new program, residents can make requests to the city for traffic calming measures. Under the new plan, the city would perform a traffic study of the area and decide if the conditions warrant action by the city. The city is also researching the use of speed humps (not bumps) as a less aggressive method of controlling speed. For more information on the traffic calming program, please visit our website at www.hermitage.net or check out the Sharon Herald’s website at www.sharonherald.com
"When researching the draft, Hinkson said he considered traffic calming programs in other municipalities, and factors such as established speed limits, two-lane roadways or limits on road width.
Hinkson also consulted “Pennsylvania’s Traffic Calming Handbook,” a document from PennDOT. The handbook provides guidelines for when and how to use traffic calming measures, ranging from new lines on the road, to increased signage to a roundabout.
However, certain aspects of the plan — such as whether projects should be paid for by the city, the affected residents or a combination — are still being developed. The current standard to develop a need for speed calming measures would be traffic of at least 100 vehicles per hour in each direction, with at least 85 out of every 100 drivers traveling 7 mph or more faster than the speed limit, although Hinkson said those figures could be changed."
To read the full article on the Sharon Herald’s site, please click HERE