By Delcenia Cosman

Homer Independent Press

If you regularly attend Homer City Council meetings, you’ve probably heard city staff and council members utter the phrase “traffic calming” at least once or twice. Most recently, the council continued work on a draft traffic calming policy at its Aug. 10 worksession. 

But what does “traffic calming” mean?

Simply put, it aims to reduce vehicle speeds in specific problem areas to make those roads safer for all users — drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, etc. — through physical and visual improvements. 

The 2024 City of Homer Transportation Plan cites a 2017 study from the National Traffic Safety Board which shows speed as a clear determining factor for pedestrian injury and fatality rates in pedestrian/vehicle crashes. According to the study, a person hit by a car travelling at 20 mph will survive 95% of the time. If the car is travelling at 30 mph, the pedestrian fatality rate increases from 5% to 45%. If the car is moving at 40 mph, the fatality rate goes up to 85%. 

Traffic calming can be incorporated into new road construction, but is typically geared toward retrofitting existing roads where safety issues have been identified. 

Traffic calming devices fall into two categories: “things you drive over” and “things you drive around.” Local examples include the speed humps on East Bunnell Avenue and Beluga Place, approaching the Bishop’s Beach parking lot; the new Heath Street crosswalk leading to the Homer Public Library; and the crosswalks/raised pedestrian islands near Safeway and at the intersection of the Sterling Highway and Pioneer Avenue. Ohlson Lane, reconstructed last year, now boasts speed bumps, on-street parking and curb bulb-outs that narrow the roadway for safer pedestrian crossing.

There are plenty of other options — temporary, seasonal and permanent — in the toolbox, from devices that narrow street width to landscaping for greater visibility to landmarks, like neighborhood entrance signs, which create visual cues for drivers to slow down and be more aware of others on or near the road. Traffic calming devices are most effective when used in combination and placed correctly.

“Roadways are public spaces that are shared,” council member Bradley Parsons said in a recent interview. “They’re not designed for cars, necessarily. It’s just that we, as Americans, tend to view them as places for only cars.”

Parsons is spearheading Homer’s current effort to develop a traffic calming policy, alongside fellow council member Shelly Erickson. Prior to living in Homer, he served on the Transportation Commission in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and helped update that city’s traffic calming policy.

With more than 100,000 residents, it makes sense that Ann Arbor would implement traffic calming. But does Homer need or want it?

City officials and community members say yes. 

Traffic calming has been a high priority for the council for years. A 2019 memo by then-council member Rachel Lord authorized city staff to draft a traffic calming policy for council review. Parsons said the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted those efforts, but creating a policy was still a very high priority by the time he joined the council in 2024.

City manager Melissa Jacobsen said residents have reported excessive speeding on Ben Walters Lane, West Fairview Avenue and Eric Lane. Parsons added Kachemak Way to the list of streets on which the city has collected speed data.

Part of the issue stems from design elements like road width and striping — double yellow centerstripes can make a neighborhood street look more like a highway. A lack of sidewalks on most residential streets compounds the safety issue. 

“If roads look like highways, people are going to treat the neighborhood like a highway. If streets have a neighborhood feel, people will drive like it’s a neighborhood. Traffic calming is a way to bring that feel back in,” Parsons said. 

City-led traffic calming measures would be applied to city-owned streets and focused on residential areas. 

In general, according to the city Transportation Plan, traffic calming devices are only suitable for local and collector roads, or roads with low-to-moderate capacity that move traffic from local streets to major “arterial” roads like the Sterling Highway. Traffic calming needs identified on any borough- or state-owned roads would be the responsibility of the borough or state, though city partnership may be possible.

The city hasn’t yet set an introduction date for the new draft policy, which staff and the council sponsors continue to develop. 

One of the highlights Parsons pointed out, however, is traffic calming implementation would be resident-initiated. 

The draft policy discussed last month outlines a process in which residents petition the city to collect data and determine whether and what measures are needed, from signage, increased patrols and education campaigns to installing physical traffic calming devices. The city would engage the community throughout the process, up to council approval for funding and implementation — a process Parsons said was successful in Ann Arbor. 

“Some (traffic calming options) are temporary … (or) pilot programs. Some involve just paint. It doesn’t have to be a really invasive alteration that the neighborhood doesn’t want,” he said. 

This story is the first in a two-part series by the Homer Independent Press. We’ll follow up when the City of Homer brings forth the draft traffic calming policy and dive into the details of what the policy will look like in practice. 

Learn more about real-world traffic-calming efforts in North America — including Anchorage’s new neighborhood greenway program — by visiting the National Association of City Transportation Officials website.