HomeMy WebLinkAbout5/6/2025 Item 7c, McKenzie
FW: Proposed Tank Farm Improvements
Attachments:TankFarmGraphic.pdf
From: John McKenzie <
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2025 6:41 PM
To: Schwartz, Luke <LSchwart@slocity.org>; Horn, Matt <mhorn@slocity.org>
Cc: steve kahn <
Subject: Proposed Tank Farm Improvements
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Mr. Schwartz and Mr. Horn,
The following was initially prepared for the postponed City Council meeting about the Tank Farm
improvements. I had sent previous correspondence of a similar nature, but as none of my suggested
changes were made, I have tried to provide more detailed reasons why the changes will be safer and
cheaper. I am sending to you directly with the hopes that I do not need to send something similar to
the Council when it is rescheduled. I have included a graphic showing what is being described.
John McKenzie
Dear Council,
I have lived in the French development for about 30 years and have crossed Tank Farm almost every day to walk several
generations of dogs. My comments focus on two aspects of the proposed Tank Farm improvements. My first item
relates to the proposed pylons that will provide a visual separation between cars and bikes and the second relates to
proposed improvements on Tank Farm fronting the Marigold shopping center.
Correction
A driveway is missing that is directly across from the Marigold shopping center driveway. This is important as it will
affect through flows during peak times and increase the need to this area remaining unrestricted.
Pylons
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As proposed, plastic pylons would line both sides of Tank Farm to provide a visual separation/deterrence from vehicles
entering the bike lane and potentially slowing vehicles from the ‘corridor effect’ from the wall of pylons. An almost
equally effective and much less costly alternative would be creating a rumble strip in lieu of the pylons between the
travel lane and bike lane. The following is a list of pros and cons of these two approaches. I hope you will concur that the
rumble strip option should be selected.
PROS
Pylons Rumble Strips
Bike Safety Bike safety
Visual deterrence to stay in lane Sound deterrence (hitting rumble strip)
Sound deterrence (hitting pylons) to stay to stay in lane
in lane
Reduced initial costs
Traffic calming
No ongoing maintenance costs
Potential ‘Corridor (slowing) effect’ of
pylons
No negative visual impacts
Pedestrian line of sight unimpeded
CONS
Pylons Rumble Strips
Initial cost substantial No visual deterrence (rely on painted surface)
Maintenance cost substantial and ongoing
Pylons have limited life before needing
replacement
Visual blight
detracts from nicely landscaped
sidewalks,
broken/missing/deteriorating pylons
(that are not fixed/replaced in timely
manner))
Provides false sense of security to cyclist
Create greater safety problems for jaywalkers
A main intent of the pylons is to create a visual traffic corridor as well as alert the distracted driver they are no longer in
the traffic lane. Solid thickly painted white lines would also create an effective visual delineation of where the traffic
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corridor ends. The pylons would not physically slow down or redirect a distracted driver’s vehicle should it veer out of
the travel lane, but rather make the driver aware that a correction was needed to get back into the travel lane. Rumble
strips would have the same effect of alerting the driver when they are off course and to correct their course. For cyclists,
a wall of pylons could give them a false sense of security that such a structure would provide them some protection and
may allow less cautious and defensive cycling practices.
From a pedestrian perspective, creating a wall of pylons may partially block the visibility of approaching vehicles from
certain locations. While two intersections (Poinsettia, Morning Glory) will be much safer, there may still be jaywalkers
(such as from the linear green belt between Poinsettia and Hollyhock). Having this wall of pylons may partially hide
pedestrians from vehicles and hide vehicles to pedestrians. This potential increases when the sun is low on the horizon.
The potential ‘corridor effect’ of the pylon wall and potential slowing of traffic is tempered with proposed bulb outs into
Tank Farm at certain intersections that will have an initial calming effect. However, probably the most effective calming
measure will be the drivers that respect the speed limit, making all speeders behind them slow to the legal speed limit. It
is very unlikely that the inclusion of pylons will change the driving practices of those that already follow the speed limit
laws or those that exceed the speed limit.
On visual impacts, a row of pylons is not attractive when new. Furthermore, when they are hit by a vehicle, they bend or
break off. If you go almost anywhere in the city where such pylons have been installed (especially older ones), you will
see damaged, bent, and broken pylons. It does not appear there is a budget to replace these. Further, if they are
replaced, there will need to be traffic diversions to allow Public Works to do the work which creates a safety and time
inconvenience to drivers and cyclists during this repair work. Those pylons that remain intact often weather poorly after
a few years further degrading the visual impacts.
On costs, we would suggest the Council get a comparison between pylons and rumble strips. Creating a rumble strip
during the laying of asphalt should have a very small additional, if any, additional cost. There would be no maintenance
needs of a rumble strip. On the other hand, pylons have material and labor costs to install. If they were to be
maintained, there would be a similar labor and material cost, along with the likely need to divert traffic during this work.
This will likely need to be done several times to each pylon during the projected life of this road improvement.
Please replace the pylons with rumble strips.
Tank Farm and Marigold Shopping Center
The entire length of Tank Farm between Highway 227 and Poinsettia is incredibly busy at certain times of the day. The
middle turning lane allows left-turns in both directions into the Marigold shopping center to the north and business park
to the south. This becomes a dedicated left turn onto Broad Street. While this works most of the day, during the peak
hour times, the left turn queue on to Broad backs up past the first entrance into the shopping center (and driveways to
the business parks). This is sometimes exacerbated by the westbound through traffic queue also extending past this
shopping center driveway. Those wanting to enter the shopping center from Tank Farm then use one of the two
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eastbound through lanes as the make-shift left turn lane. Some of this left-turning traffic decide to go to the second
shopping center driveway. This make-shift approach still allows one through lane to get past this mess to keep traffic
flowing and not backing up into the Broad/Tank Farm intersection. Any constrictions will exacerbate this problem.
The currently reconfigured layout does improve westbound through traffic by making the existing right-turn lane at
Broad a through and turning lane. This will reduce the long peak hour queuing for through traffic. However, the new
design will worsen the eastbound through traffic by necking down to one lane too early. Should this be coupled with the
installation of pylons there may be some instances that through traffic may be stopped or slowed for periods long
enough to have this queue extend into the Broad/Tank Farm intersection. This would make the left-turn operation into
the shopping center worse than it is.
The following measures are suggested:
1. No pylons installed between Broad Street and Poinsettia;
2. Change the 3-lane configuration at Poinsettia to four lanes as follows:
a. For westbound traffic, keep it one lane;
b. For eastbound traffic, retain left turn, and change to create two travel lanes (one for through traffic and
one for right-turn only onto Poinsettia;
3. Move the Poinsettia crosswalk to the east side of intersection (currently on west side) and construct bulbouts
onto Tank Farm. The south side bulbout would prevent right-turn only Poinsettia traffic from traveling further
along Tank Farm. Moving the crosswalk would more easily allow left and right turns for eastbound traffic onto
Poinsettia.
Thank you for considering these changes to make our neighborhood a safer and more enjoyable place to drive, ride and
walk.
John McKenzie
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Tank Farm (Broad to Poinsettia) Safer and Cheaper Alternative
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