What We Learned

Parking

From SW Mistletoe Drive to SW Fern Street, the width of Ascension Drive does not meet the City’s design standards for allowing parking on both sides of the street. Even so, the City Engineer is willing to reconsider limiting parking to only one side of the street, along with added visual safety measures in the back-to-back curves. In the straight stretches of Ascension Drive, parking will still be allowed on both sides.

Key factors:

• Space is not available on the street in the back-to-back curves for parking and adequate line of sight visibility. This is based on the regulatory speed of 25 mph, and the stopping time needed at that speed. (The 15 mph signs are legally advisory only.)
• Because this is a retrofit, not a new street, the desired compromise is to reduce risk while at least partly accommodating street parking that has been present for 25 years.
• The straight stretches have adequate visibility, allowing enough time to pull over when meeting an oncoming vehicle.
• Removing parking on one side in the back-to-back curves will increase visibility over the current situation.
• Striping the back-to-back curves will add visual cues to slow down and stay on the correct side of the street. This should help with both visibility and speeding.
• Oregon recently passed legislation authorizing the City the to adopt 20 mph speed limits for some neighborhood streets. Staff will pursue this option with City Council. Assuming adoption, the City would add signage to priority streets in the near future. Ascension Drive would be a proposed candidate for the program. This could further encourage speed reduction, which would further address speeding and visibility concerns.

Speed

The average speed on Ascension Drive is 26 mph, with 85 percent of drivers below 30 mph — but there are a few outliers. In response to previous community concerns, the City has monitored speed on Ascension Drive since 2017. The City has received several suggestions for how to slow folks down in this area — but many are not feasible given the width and grade of this street.

Note: The 85th percentile speed represents the speed 85 percent of drivers stay at or below.

Speed values were recorded between SW Mistletoe Lane and SW Oxalis Terrace.

The City has already installed 15 mph advisory speed signs at the back-to-back curves and has placed temporary “Your Speed Is” feedback signs on Ascension Drive.

Increased Traffic Volume

It is true that there is increased traffic volume on Ascension Drive, which is common for the growing region. Traffic volume will continue to be monitored over time on this street.

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