To: Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council
From: Julie Lucido, Public Works Director
Prepared By: Lorien Clark, Senior Transportation Planner
TITLE:
Title
Informational Presentation on the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program
LABEL
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Recommendation
Receive an informational presentation on the status of the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program.
Body
DISCUSSION:
The City of Napa Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program (NTCP) includes strategies to address traffic calming through various measures, as well as procedures for submitting, analyzing, and implementing proposed projects. The overarching goals of the NTCP are to lower traffic volumes from cut-through traffic and reduce vehicular speeding on neighborhood streets and enhance safety for all roadway users. The NTCP applies to roadways classified as a collector or local street as specified in the City of Napa’s 2040 General Plan and that have a posted speed limit of 35 MPH or less.
The Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program complements the City’s other transportation safety related work, including the City of Napa Local Roadway Safety Plan (LRSP). The LRSP was developed with the aim to reduce fatal and severe injury collisions through a prioritized list of improvements that can enhance safety on roadways in the City of Napa. The LRSP primarily focuses on improvements on the City’s arterial roadways, where the greatest number of injury collisions have occurred, whereas the NTCP is aimed for use on local and collector roadways.
The City began accepting applications for the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program in December 2024. As of October 31, 2025, Public Works has received 25 traffic calming applications for 22 locations. All applications have gone through preliminary review to determine if they meet the initial screening metrics used to evaluate an application’s applicability to the NTCP. Applicants were notified of their application’s preliminary review and applications that met the initial screening metrics have moved on in the process. Two of the applications were incomplete and this information was shared with the applicants.
There were five applications that requested traffic calming measures at locations where there was an active Capital Improvement Program (CIP) project. These include applications for Salvador Avenue, Coombs Street (two areas), Laurel Street, and for Bryan Avenue/Kilburn Avenue in the Westwood Neighborhood. The CIP projects were leveraged to accelerate these applications and incorporate the traffic calming measures into the scope of the CIP projects. This allowed streamlining of the processes and cost effectiveness. The Salvador request is complete, the Coombs requests are currently under construction, the Laurel request has been designed and will be constructed after the emergency waterline project, and the Westwood request has been designed and will be completed as part of the current construction project.
In addition to the five applications received that related to CIP projects, there were applications for 13 additional locations that were received prior to June 30, 2025. These have completed preliminary review, data collection, and prioritization. The data collection phase involved conducting multiple types of studies including field work and safety analysis. The data collection work has developed reports for each submitted roadway segment for vehicle speeds, traffic volumes, collision history, presence of pedestrian and bicycle facilities, proximity to schools, etc.
The applications received before June 30, 2025, have advanced to the design analysis phase to determine the most suitable traffic calming measure for the location based on the collected data. This analysis is scheduled to be completed by the end of January, and will be followed by the preparation of conceptual designs of the traffic calming measures for each location. The first conceptual design is expected by the beginning of March, and subsequent designs are anticipated to follow in weekly increments, depending on the complexity of the design for each location. Public Works has contracted with the transportation consulting firm W-Trans to assist with the analysis and preparation of conceptual designs.
The two applications received after June 30, 2025, have gone through preliminary review and are currently in the data collection phase. The same process that is underway for the first batch of applications will be completed for this group and all subsequent applications.
In summary, 25 applications were submitted for 22 locations. Repeat locations were processed as a single application. Two applications were incomplete, five requests are being completed as part of CIP projects, 13 have advanced to the stage of selecting appropriate traffic-calming measures and developing concept designs, and the last two submitted are currently in the data collection stage.
Each of the applications is a mini-project and receiving 25 applications for 22 locations in the first year has created a backlog. After we work through these initial applications, we anticipate that the evaluation and conceptual design work will take approximately six months moving forward. The number that will be constructed annually will be dependent on the prioritization as documented in the NTCP and the scope of the proposed improvements.
In addition to the five requests that are being constructed with CIP projects, staff seeks to implement five others by June 30, 2026. The level of complexity of each traffic calming project varies by location, with more complex projects requiring more time and resources to implement. Staff will be working to balance the implementation of the highest-ranking applications under the priority criteria with those that can be most quickly implemented. As this new program is being implemented, staff will continue to report back to City Council annually on the status, progress, and accomplishments.
FINANCIAL IMPACTS:
The adopted City of Napa Operating & Capital Budget for Fiscal Years 2025/26 and 2026/27 identified $100,000 annually for the implementation of traffic calming.
CEQA:
The Public Works Director has determined that the Recommended Action described in this Agenda Report is not in-and-of-itself a “project” (pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15378) since it does not result in a physical change in the environment.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
None.
NOTIFICATION:
None.