“I’m glad they’re doing what they’re doing to see what will happen,” Ken Alspaugh of Ohio Street.
As proposed, the city will blockade Ohio Street at Broad Street for 90 days beginning Nov. 28. During that time, the city will measure traffic and determine whether to also blockade temporarily Greene and or South streets.
“We could look at shutting off permanently all three of these streets, or one or two,” said City Engineer Don O’Connor.
Since the 2012 re-route of Ohio 444 off WPAFB Area A onto Kauffman Avenue, South Central Avenue, West Dayton Drive and Broad Street, base commuters have used neighborhood roads to access Gate 1A, O’Connor said.
“Ohio Street is right in the middle, and it’s where we had the largest traffic increase,” he said.
Residents on those roads — Ohio, Greene and South Streets — are frustrated with the influx of traffic twice each day.
“It’s terrible,” Ohio Street resident Joe Hobbs said. “You can’t get out in the morning sometimes because it’s backed up.”
And then, the rush off base clogs the street again by late afternoon.
“Rush hour is bad. Five o’clock in the afternoon is bad,” Hobbs said. “All day long there’s just a lot of traffic through here.”
More than 1,600 vehicles per day are counted on Ohio Street — far more than usual for a neighborhood road, O’Connor said. Still, the traffic count is down from a peak 2,000 vehicles per day in spring 2015 due in part to countermeasures including signal adjustments, a resurfacing that blocked the road and a notice sent to base staff.
“If you get to that many vehicles a day down this residential street, it’s just not how this neighborhood was envisioned and designed,” O’Connor said. “We think if there wasn’t base cut through traffic, Ohio would probably be down to 800-900 vehicles a day.”
Speed measurements indicated the average speed on Ohio Street was on par with comparable roads with a 25 mile per hour speed limit, O’Connor said. Average speed clocked in at 19 to 21 miles per hour, with maximum speeds hitting 37-39 miles per hour.
Residents were hopeful the proposed solution could solve the problem, but said traffic on West Dayton Road — especially at the intersection with South Central Avenue — must also be addressed. Otherwise, drivers will surpass the blockades and use the side streets to cut between West Dayton Road and South Central Avenue, residents said during a meeting at City Hall.
O’Connor said he’s aware of concerns at the intersection, but said at present the city is unable to add a right turn lane from West Dayton Road to South Central Avenue.
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