Transportation System Plan 2018-2038

The discussion of level of service standards is com plex involving an assessm ent of existing and future traffic operations, costs, and com munity “quality of lif e” impacts. Equally important in and integral to any decision about the traffic operational im plications of a level of service standard are considerations for: • The relationship of street im provem ents to the land use patterns of the city as established by policy and zoning, including land use designations, locations and densities. In particular, the decision to establish a level of service standard should consider the effect of the standard on the ability of the city to encourage more efficien t land use patterns that cost less from a public infrastructure perspective and have the poten tial of reducing reliance on the autom obile as required by OAR 660-012-000 (the Tr ansportation Planning Rule). • The relationship of street im provem ents to the goal of accom modating the needs of transit, bicyclists and pedestrians and, thus, encouragi ng the use of alternative transportation m odes as consistent with the RTP Alternative Measures adopted for the Rogue Valley region by the Land Conservation and Developm ent Com mission in 2002. • Policies and standards that guide the m anagem ent of access from streets of various functional classifications to adjacent property , as well as street and traffic signal spacing. Identification of Level of Service Strategies With existing 2002 PM peak hour traffic volum es (as docum ented in Chapter 3), all but seven of the m ore than 100 intersections analy zed for the TSP currently operate at Level of Service (LOS) D or better. Three operate at LOS E and three at LOS F. LOS D corresponds to the m aximum perm issible level of delay currently allowed under the City of Medford’s Public Facilities Plan . With the anticipated future population and em ployment growth in the City (estim ated to 2023) and in nearby communities that generate travel to and from the City, increases in traffic volum es, congestion and delay on City streets are expected. Several of the key intersections in the city that were evaluated as part of the Level of Service Study could experience LOS E or F conditions by 20237. Because of the costs and potential land use, neighbor hood and alternative m ode im pacts associated with future traffic growth and congesti on, consideration was given to three strategic approaches to establishing a new level of service standard for the city . These strategic approaches included: • Using existing Level of Service (LOS) D as the C ity’s standard for defining the threshold for unacceptable degrees of congestion during a single PM peak hour. With this standard all intersections operating or expected to operate at LOS E or F would require m itigation; • Establishing the standard at LOS E for a single PM peak hour. This would increase average delay experienced along the busiest travel corridors in th e city and m itigation would only be required at intersections operating or expect ed to operate at LOS F; and • Establishing a two-hour PM peak hour standard. This m ulti-hour standard would cover the two- hour PM peak period (4:00 p.m . to 6:00 p.m .), with LOS D or better operations required for the second hour, but no LOS requirem ent for the single highest hour. For the multi-hour analy sis, the second highest hour was what rem ained from projected 2023 4:00 p.m . to 6:00 p.m. peak period traffic volum es after subtracting the 2023 peak hour volum e. Therefore, the second-highest hour 7 See Appendi x G for a m ore com plete discussi on of t he Level of Servi ce St udy including anal ysis methodol ogy, locatio n-specific an alysis resu lts, an d a summary of potential ro adway im provements to mitigate th e anticipated adverse traffic operational conditi ons with each LOS alternative. Medford Transportation System Plan 5-4 Street Plan