Madison St. Access Committee

Recommendation to the LQ City Council

1/17/2011

Madison St. Access Committee Members

PGA West Residents Rich Stenton – Chairman

Dave Turner – Co-Chair

Judy LeBlang – Secretary

Dick Moore – President of Res 1

Merv Kirshner – Developer

Karen Pelletier

George Harmina

Kathy Foord

Paula Matos

Griffin Ranch Dayton Dickey

Agenda

Our assessment of the situation

Our objections to the worm medians and why

Why Madison is different than other areas of La Quinta with worm medians

Our recommendations & ballpark cost

Petition results which show that the residents back our recommendation

Our request of the City

Situation Overview

Res 1

Clubhouse

Modified Pork Chop

Health ClubErnie’s

Tract Map Conditions allow for full turn

movements

Griffin Ranch

• #60 Primary Entry (Madison Street): Full turn

movements in and out are allowed.

Winged Foot Gate

• #26 … a traffic signal shall be installed when traffic

conditions warrant installation. The Applicant shall

participate in 100% of the cost of the traffic signal.

Legends Gate

• #35 Full turning movements shall be allowed at the main

gated entrance located on the east side of

Madison, approx. ½ mile south of Airport Blvd.

Residents & Emergency Vehicles on the West

side of Madison only want to go NORTH

Res 1

Clubhouse

Modified Pork Chop

Health ClubErnie’s

90-100 cars/day from Res 1 employees are already

making U-turns at the Winged Foot gate

Residents on the East side of Madison DO NOT want

to be cut off from their club & friends

Res 1

Clubhouse

Health

Club

Large Vehicles & Landscape Trucks with

trailers can not make the U-turn

Large vehicles (some fire engines, trash, landscapers with trailers,

RVs) can’t make a U-turn

− Captain Gil Barrier said some fire engines can’t make the U-turn

− Jose Aguilera of JAG Gardening/Landscaping and Greg Gritters of Vintage

Landscape state they cannot make the U-turn at Airport Avenue without starting

out in the traffic lane (which is a traffic hazard) when coming from Legends to

Weiskopf gate.

Endo Engineering’s solution to the large

vehicle issue

Large vehicles going from Weiskopf to the Legends

would have to go 2.6 or 4 miles out of their way

Average daily # of vehicles that would be

forced to take dangerous U-turns

Source: Transponder Data & Counter

Based on 9 months of transponder (entrance) data & 4-1/2 months of

counter (exit) data

In Season Exits Off Season Exits

West side gates 676 421

Res 1 employees 90 90

Total 766 511

Alternatives to Forced U-turns

Res 1 employees (no transponder access)

South on Madison, east on Airport, north on Monroe, west on

54th

Adds 3.87 miles to their commute

Residents who would normally exit the Winged Foot or

Weiskopf Gates

Exit the Stadium or Spanish Bay gates, right on 54th to Madison

Adds 2-3 miles to their commute at 20 mph (vs. 50 mph on

Madison)

Large vehicles that can not make a U-turn

Adds 2.6 - 4 miles to their trip

Reasons our situation is different from other

areas of LQ with divided or “worm” medians

They can avoid taking U-turns by taking a left, then another left. We

can’t without going way out of our way.

They can get to everything they need by taking either a right or a left.

We can’t. We only go north.

On a 3 lane roads like Jefferson, they can take a U-turn if they have

a large vehicle. We can’t.

They are protected while taking a U-turn by a left-turn signal. We

would be

Turning without the protection of a signal

Turning into traffic going 50+ mph

Example – Calle Tampico

Most importantly, in our situation, worm medians

produce virtually NO savings in accidents

Even if you believe the accident rates Endo Engineering quotes, the

amount of savings in accidents does not justify the imposition of worm

medians

Using Endo Engineering’s savings in accident rates of 0.77 accidents

per million turning vehicles, it would take us 5.8 years to save one

accident!

It’s not as though we’d be going from 5 accidents a year to one or

zero. Installing worm medians produces virtually no improvement in

safety.

Given the paltry improvement in safety, why would it be worth

dividing the community and angering the residents?

Source: 11/23/11 Endo Engineering Updated Traffic Study, pg. 16

Additional Safety Issues

Enforcement issues

Growth in traffic density on Madison

Enforcement Issues – Speed of Traffic

Traffic on Madison is often going at rates of speed significantly in

excess of the posted speed limit

Taking U-turns into traffic going 50-70 mph is not a good idea, especially at night

− Do a “blind” study of traffic speed on Madison

When sitting in the left turn lane it is hard to judge the speed of oncoming

traffic, especially after dark

− Sitting in the Winged Foot or Weiskopf gates at least gives you better perspective to

view the amount and speed of oncoming traffic

Enforcement Issues-Wrong Way Entrances

Vehicles & police enter worm medians the wrong

way to make illegal left hand turns

This makes U-turns even more dangerous

Traffic Density on Madison

U-turns

Worm Medians

Signals

Accident Rate

per Million

Turning Vehicles

Density of traffic and speed of traffic on

Madison

Endo Eng worm

median accident rate

As the amount of traffic increases on Madison, we believe that, long

term, we will need signals in order to safely exit PGAW and go north

Our Objections to the “worm medians”

Safety Making U-turns into oncoming traffic that is often traveling in

excess of the 50 mph speed limit isn’t safe

Even Endo Engineering’s data reveals that there would be virtually

NO improvement in safety with worm medians

Emergency runs to the hospital would be forced out of their way

when every second counts & put in a dangerous U-turn situation

Large vehicles would not be able to complete a U-turn

Motorists and police entering the worms the “wrong” way add to

the risk of accidents

Our Objectives

Promote public safety• Enable residents to go north onto Madison without risking U-turns

• Enable residents on the east side of Madison to safely connect to

PGA West

Give the City a long term plan that residents would

support Price out the cost for a KSL buyout

Our Recommendations & Rationale

Do nothing on Madison until warranted by traffic or accidents• All agree that no traffic control is needed at this time

• Installing worm medians makes us no safer

• It may take 10-15 years before any traffic control is needed

Leave the tract maps as conditioned for Winged Foot/Griffin Ranch & Weiskopf/Legends Way• Keep residents’ preferred method of handling long term traffic growth on

Madison enshrined in the tract map. 919 PGA West & Griffin Ranch residents support this recommendation via their signed petition.

• Long term, 5 signals along Madison (at 54th, Winged Foot/Griffin Ranch, Airport, Weiskopf/Legends Way & 58th) do meet La Quinta’s minimum distance requirement between signals

• Synchronizing the signals should not slow traffic

Modify the “pork chop” planned for 58th & Black Diamond to enable residents to go north into the Summit/Legends

Estimated Cost for Buyout

Madison

Com

Request

City’s

Original

Request

TOTAL

Needed

Obligations

under Tract

Maps

KSL Offer Diff between

What’s

Needed

& Offer

#25500-4, 28603-1,

228838-1 signals at

Winged Ft/Griffin

Ranch &

Weiskopf/Legends

860,000 124,000For 2 worm

medians

860,000 860,000 124,000 736,000

#29147-1 Troon Way,

Conditioned as a

signal

- - 215,000 31,000 (31,000)

#29147-1 Black

Diamond & 58th

Modified Pork Chop

31,000 31,000 322,500Conditioned as a

signal

30,000 1,000

#28960 Landscape &

Median Imprv to 58th

+ ¼ signal @

Madison & 58th

963,500 963,500 963,500 963,500 -

Contr to TIF fund 500,000 - - 501,500 (501,500)

TOTAL 860,000 1,618,500 1,854,500 2,361,000 1,650,000 204,500

Summary

Our request is that the City NOT approve worm medians or any traffic control device on Madison that

would force us to take dangerous U-turns

NOT accept the Endo Engineering traffic study to justify amending the existing conditions

Modify the “pork chop” planned for 58th

Investigate alternatives (traffic signals/turn lanes) when needed

If you agree with these recommendations, indicate that by a show of hands

Request that you restrict your comments to issues we have not already covered

We would like to reserve a few minutes at the end of the hearing for rebuttal, if necessary

Thank you