{"id":731476,"date":"2026-04-16T06:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/731476\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T06:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:09:15","slug":"west-u-holds-vote-on-traffic-study-changes-set-to-revisit-in-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/731476\/","title":{"rendered":"West U holds vote on traffic study changes, set to revisit in May"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWest University Place officials were hesitant to approve recommendations that would make traffic improvements along several intersections in the city.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What happened<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A traffic study was conducted over two days in January and February <a href=\"https:\/\/communityimpact.com\/houston\/bellaire-meyerland-west-university\/government\/2026\/02\/11\/west-u-to-potentially-invest-in-traffic-stop-study-after-speeding-concerns\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">after residents brought up concerns of speeding<\/a> on certain city streets. The results of the study found that installing bulb-outs at four intersections could help address concerns. Bulb-outs are curb extensions that can be used as a traffic-calming feature that widens the sidewalk for a short distance.<\/p>\n<p>However, City Council members brought up concerns about the necessity of the changes after seeing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westutx.gov\/AgendaCenter\/ViewFile\/Agenda\/_04132026-1302\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the results of the study,<\/a> which showed that at most only 13 people were at a given intersection during peak hours.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The approach<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Engineering firm BGE observed four areas over two days during morning and evening peak hours. Morning observations were from 7-8 a.m., and evening observations were from 2:30-3:30 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Observations took place at these four intersections:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wesleyan Street at Rice Boulevard<\/li>\n<li>Wesleyan Street at University Boulevard<\/li>\n<li>Wesleyan Street at Case Street<\/li>\n<li>Wesleyan Street at Marquette Street<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Recommendations also included a pedestrian-activated flashing sign and high-visibility crosswalk striping, as well as flashers for motorists\u2019 awareness.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The discussion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Megan Siercks, a traffic engineer with BGE who led the study, said all of the recommended changes are still conditional.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t want these crosswalks to give pedestrians a false sense of security,\u201d she said. \u201cThey still have to be aware.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Siercks also added that the city does not have to implement all of the recommendations. They could add bulb-outs but not lights, or vice versa.<\/p>\n<p>However, council member John Bertini said that when putting up traffic signals, it has to be reasonable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to be reasonable and be driven by the data,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you put in a traffic-controlled campaign in places they aren\u2019t warranted, bad things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s next<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Officials agreed that including families who use the intersections would be effective before making a decision, and they will survey residents about the intersections. Council is set to revisit the issue in May.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West University Place officials were hesitant to approve recommendations that would make traffic improvements along several intersections in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":731477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[4345,358,314,302580,3187,104757,302579,86166],"class_list":["post-731476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-texas","tag-traffic","tag-traffic-study","tag-tx","tag-west-u","tag-west-u-traffic-improvement","tag-west-university-place"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}