San Leandro Municipal Code Ch. 7 Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program

The Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program (NTCP) is designed to address speeding and cut-through traffic in residential neighborhoods. The City receives more requests than can be accommodated each year. Therefore, this program is in place to provide minimum criteria that must be met for a roadway to be considered in the NTCP and also identifies prioritization criteria used to prioritize roadways to receive traffic calming measures.

Detailed design requirements and procedures will be as described in the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program Handbook. This handbook will be maintained and updated by the Public Works Department.

A roadway may qualify for the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program if all of the following conditions exist:

(a) The roadway is a local residential roadway, a residential collector roadway, or a collector roadway as defined in the San Leandro General Plan's Transportation Element.

(b) If the roadway is a local residential roadway, the critical speed must be at least 32 miles per hour (mph) or the average daily traffic volume must be at least 1,000 vehicles per day (vpd).

(c) If the roadway is a residential collector roadway, the critical speed must be at least 34 miles per hour (mph) or the average daily traffic volume must be at least 2,000 vehicles per day (vpd).

(d) If the roadway is a collector roadway, street segments of selected collectors must contain more than 95% residential properties as determined by the Public Works Department. The segments identified shall use the prioritization criteria of a residential collector roadway as defined in (c).

If a roadway meets the minimum criteria, it may be prioritized amongst all of the other qualifying roadways based on the following points system:

(a) Critical (85th Percentile) Speed.

(b) Average Daily Traffic Volume.

(c) Collision History. One point for each collision susceptible to correction by traffic calming over the past three years. (5 points maximum)

(d) Pedestrian Generators. One point for each park, recreation facility or other public facility that is a significant pedestrian generator within the neighborhood boundary as determined by the Traffic Engineer. Elementary, middle and high schools will be weighed double points in the category. (5 points maximum)

In order to ensure effective use of City resources, it is prudent to obtain both resident and property owner approval of any proposed traffic calming measures. A designated traffic calming area will be divided into two sub-areas at the discretion of Public Works staff. The areas are as follows:

Focus Area (Improvement Area) – This area is the principal street(s) where traffic calming has been requested and where the majority of the traffic calming improvements will be implemented.

Influence Area (Neighboring Area) – This area includes the streets surrounding the Focus Area where traffic may be marginally influenced or altered as a result of implementing the traffic calming improvements.

There are two requirements for implementation of the NTCP, which are as follows:

(a) Residents and property owners within the Focus Area must authorize the implementation of the NTCP by return ballot. Acceptance of the program requires a response by at least 50% of the issued ballots with a minimum approval rating of 67%.

(b) Once a final traffic calming plan is recommended, both the residents and the property owners must approve the plan by ballot. Approval shall be based upon the Composite Voting System shown in the figure below. A minimum of 50% of the issued ballots must be returned from the Focus Area to constitute a valid vote. The response from the Influence Area will be evaluated using a Protest Vote method. The Protest Vote method will count no-votes and compare them to the entire Influence Area to determine the approval percentage.

Editor's Note: Former Title 12, Chapter 15, Public Works: Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program, was editorially renumbered to be Title 8, Chapter 7, Engineering and Transportation: Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program, during the 2005-06 republication. Legislative history for former Title 12, Chapter 15: Resolution No. 2003-154, 07/07/2003 [§§12.15.100-12.15.120]

(Resolution No. 2011-129, 06/20/2011 [§8.7.105]; Resolution No. 2007-131, 10/01/2007 [§8.7.120]; Resolution No. 2005-156, 11/21/2005 [§§8.7.100-8.7.120]; Res. No. 2024-061, 6/17/2024 [§§8.7.100-8.7.120])