Transportation Safety Committee:
Can you make decisions without information?

Very simple:

Are traffic studies being done?
Can we see the results?
And if not now, when?

Here’s what was in the “General Plan 2020” document, from October, 2000.  The date is from 1995 and 1996 — that is, 26 or 27 years in the past.  The full Chapter Two (33 pages) is below.

There were 30 traffic volume count points in the City of Arcata, plus 5 on Routes 299, 101, and 101 on-ramps.

Here is the Planwest work schedule from the contract with the City signed April 22, 2021 — a year and three months ago (as of July 22, 2022).

Planwest is the lead consultant on the Gateway project. GHD is the the engineering sub-contractor.  (GHD is an Australian-based employee-owned firm with 10,000 employees with 200+ offices in 14 countries on 5 continents. They took over the office of the engineering firm Winzler & Kelly in Eureka in 2011.)

The image below was taken from the full page with Section 5 moved up to be under the calendar, and with notes added in red.

The original schedule was completely and unrealistically optimistic, as noted in the article on this website “Planwest’s schedule: We’re completely off-course.” So we’ll forget the original schedule. 

But here it is, August 2022.  The schedule of work above had the studies being completed more than a year prior to the initial date for the City Council’s vote on the draft plan, scheduled for December 2022.

The schedule of work called for eight studies, including:

• • Air Quality / Greenhouse Gases
  • Noise Study
  • Traffic Study Report: Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT) and Level of Service (LOS)

Where are these studies?
Have they been started?
When is the expected delivery?

How can the Transportation Safety Committee make decisions about the future of K Street without traffic studies to support their decision?

Or do we want to assume that in the future all motorized vehicular traffic — including delivery trucks — will be less than what it is now.

Even with the addition of thousands of new residents to the Gateway area.  What are the predictions?

Where are the traffic studies?

Here’s the full Transportation Element from the “General Plan 2020” document, from October, 2020. To see detail, use the + button to zoom in.

First is the Traffic Volumes section, pages 4 – 9.
Then is the entire 33-page chapter.

Click on the icon at the upper left to show the Thumbnails.  Use to search.

Planwest / City contract documents, below.
Click on the icon at the upper left to show the Thumbnails.  Use to search.

The 12-page contract with Planwest Partners, April 22, 2022

The 133-page “Request for Proposal” (RFP) document from Planwest Partners, February 19, 2021