Yosemite Avenue - City of Madera

JLB Traffic Engineering, Inc. (JLB) was retained by the City of Madera to prepare a Pedestrian-Vehicular Safety Evaluation for a segment of Yosemite Avenue in the City of Madera. The purpose of the preparation of the Safety Evaluation was to provide the City of Madera with recommendations to improve pedestrian and vehicular safety across Yosemite Avenue and “L” Street, “M” Street and “N” Street.

The Safety Evaluation included an in-depth evaluation of existing traffic and pedestrian counts, radar and field data to determine the 85th-percentile speeds for Yosemite Avenue, a three-year collision analysis, a stopping sight distance evaluation from the major street to the minor street approaches, a corner sight-distance evaluation from the minor street to the major street approaches for the intersection of Yosemite Avenue and “N” Street, observation of existing traffic and pedestrian operations, and the preparation of Signal and Multi-Way STOP Warrants. These were prepared pursuant to the 2014 Edition of the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (CA MUTCD), the latest edition of the Caltrans Highway Design Manual and the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) reference “Urban Street Design Guide.” Upon completion of the Safety Evaluation, JLB provided the City of Madera with short-term, near-term and long-term corrective measures for implementation.

Some short-term recommendations considered a reduction of the posted speed limit, more frequent maintenance on the landscaping in the center median, and the installation of additional signage while near-term recommendations included the installation of dynamic speed feedback signs, high-visibility crosswalks and RRFBs to crosswalks across Yosemite Avenue.  The long-term recommendation considered the installation of bulb-outs, or curb extension, at the intersections of Yosemite Avenue and “L” Street, “M” Street and “N” Street to provide a traffic calming measure and improve pedestrian safety.

Since completion of the Pedestrian-Vehicular Safety Evaluation, the City has implemented many of the short-term low-cost corrective measures.