Thank you for contacting the City of Roswell Department of Transportation. Your request has been assigned to one of our team members and will be reviewed in the order of priority.

Traffic Engineering assigned this issue to Mike Elliott

Mike Elliott assigned this issue to Scott Brunner

Good Afternoon,

I'm assuming that this inquiry is related to the section of Hembree Road between Chaffin Road and Crabapple Road. As indicated in the other SCF responses, City staff is conducting an engineering study of this section of Hembree Road, and is completing its warrant study for possible all-way strop control specifically at the intersection of Hembree Road and Northgate Court. There is some horizontal and vertical curvature that could warrant all-way stop regardless of the volumes on the side streets. A final determination will be made next week.

I coincidentally reside on Hembree Road east of Crabapple Road, which has almost three times more traffic and higher average operating speeds than the section of Hembree Road west of Crabapple Road, and so I wanted to add that I would not characterize the traffic conditions on the west side of Crabapple Road as insane. It is relatively easy to cross the two lane roadway on foot when using due care if you cross at areas with good visibility -- pedestrians also have a responsibility under the law to cross at areas where they are readily visible by approaching drivers, and not every portion of a roadway in a hilly and wooded area like Roswell can be expected to provide a convenient and safe crossing.

We are proceeding with the appropriate traffic engineering investigation for the safety of the community near Northgate Trail, but keep in mind that Hembree Road is a designated collector roadway, and 2-lane collector roadways typically have volumes in the 2,000 to 18,000 vehicles-per-day range -- Hembree at Northgate Trail has daily traffic in the 3,500 vpd range at this time, so its traffic level is within the lower range of traffic levels of similar facilities throughout the city. Traffic levels will likely continue to grow as the area population continues to grow.

We will provide the final results of our engineering investigation next week. If an all-way stop is warranted, it will also allow us to later implement a pedestrian crosswalk under stop control conditions.

We appreciate your interest in public safety for your community.

- Scott Brunner, City Traffic Engineer
sbrunner@roswellgov.com

You might not “characterize it as insane” but when you are trying to safely get to a sidewalk with two young children...you might understand where I am coming from. It is not easy, relatively or otherwise, to cross a two lane road with a four year old on a bicycle with the lack of visibility we have of oncoming traffic. It’s not the amount of traffic that is the issue so the number of cars a day is a moot point to me. Cars coming around that curve don’t have time to stop and we have seconds to cross before another car comes into view. We can’t safely get to a spot where cars can see us. Crossing from northgate court is our only option.

I also wanted to add that we have 11 children who reside in our little northgate court area, they are who all of this is for, and we do appreciate the attention the city is paying to our issue.

Thank you all. My comments were not intended to be offensive, but to explain that we were evaluating the physical characteristics of the roadway, specifically relative to the physical sight limitation at this particular intersection, and would making a determination on all-way stop control very soon.

I was also trying to put into perspective that Hembree Road is not a local neighborhood street, but is really a thoroughfare roadway, and due care is needed to be exercised by everyone until additional traffic control measures are implemented. Should all-way stop be installed, due care is still going to be needed to be exercised by parents with young children crossing at this location because there is no guarantee vehicles are going to stop, until they actually stop. It was not long ago before I had a child in school in a neighborhood with lots of children, and my son actually rode a commuter train 12 miles to a attend a magnet school in downtown. When he got out of the train station, he had to cross a 5-lane roadway to get to the campus (without his parents), so trust me, I understand where you are coming from (and yes, our neighbors thought we were crazy). My point being, if you have to walk with your children in the grass a hundred feet to the west to cross more safely with better visibility, that would be the prudent thing to do. You are fortunate you can be there with them and guide them to a safe spot until we are able to implement something.

We will keep everybody posted next week. Thanks, and have a nice weekend.

Scott Brunner

As you may have heard from the social media posts and City Public Communications office, our Department made a determination that all-way stop is warranted due to limited sight-distance created by horizontal and vertical curvature of the hillcrest to the east, combined with a high proportion of very high travel speeds. The all-way stop is scheduled to be implemented at approximately 1:00 pm, Thursday 10-24-19. City staff is also currently evaluating the best way to install a pedestrian crosswalk on the west side of the intersection as some concrete ramp work and pedestrian landings will need to be constructed in addition to the crosswalk markings.

We will keep you posted as we get closer to the installation.

-Scott Brunner, City Traffic Engineer
sbrunner@roswellgov.com

Scott, I saw this over the weekend and I’m floored. I am incredibly grateful to live in a city who takes our concerns seriously and takes action so quickly. I lived in Roswell my entire life and left for a few years for college, city life, etc. My husband and I just returned in March with our two kids and we both are even more confident that we chose the right city to raise our kids. We are grateful beyond words for helping to keep them safe in their community!!

You are very welcome! We set a very high bar for Installing an all-way stop based on the federal regulations governing traffic control, but the more we looked into it and collected data on this one, the more concerned we became. It definitely met the speed/sight-distance criteria

Very glad you are enjoying Roswell, I just moved here a year ago myself. Thanks again or the kind words.

Scott Brunner

Closed by S.Brunner