WATCH: Motorcycle Demonstration with Puyallup's Traffic Unit

Ever wonder how a speed bump ended up one street and not another, or whom to ask if you think a street needs improvements?

Members of the Puyallup Police Department and the traffic engineering department outlined the plans and polices surrounding Puyallup’s thoroughfares at the Crime Control Roundtable Meeting on March 7, 2013.

"Be careful what you wish for... because if you ask us to come, we’ll come.”

Sgt. Bob Thompson led a presentation on the city’s two-year-old traffic control division, which was resurrected after 10 years by the department once collisions started becoming a critical issue.

“2009 was a record year for fatalities in Puyallup,” said Thompson. “Since then, there have been significantly less collisions and fatalities thanks to aggressive enforcement.”

(Watch the attached Patch Clip for a tour of the traffic unit motorcycles).

There are known problem areas to traffic police, especially around Ferrucci and Wildwood schools and along the downtown corridor.

One citizen raised concern over the number of car prowls and thefts in the city, and Capt. Ryan Portmann said it is a known and ongoing problem in the area, but that it's a reflection of national trends. Discounted car clubs are available for purchase at the police station and the citizens were reminded to always report suspicious activity.

“Let us determine if something really is suspicious or not, or if a crime has occurred,” said Capt. Scott Engle.

Puyallup Police adopted the Street of the Week program as a way to address public issues on city streets, which Puyallup Police announce on Twitter every week.

Thompson said that focus on these highlighted streets doesn’t end after a week, and teams revisit the spot and do the surveys again at unannounced times.

“Our goal is to change people’s behavior,” said Thompson. “And be careful what you wish for, because if you ask us to come, we’ll come.”

Citizen Requests Help Engineering Department Identify Traffic Improvements

“We get a lot of requests for stop signs… but we don’t want to put a stop sign everywhere, or it loses credibility,” said city traffic engineer Sangeev Tandle. “When a request comes in, we study the location using traffic control technology and decide how to add intelligent systems to the adapt traffic flow, if needed.”

Planned traffic improvement projects in the city include a new traffic light near Sparks Stadium at the 5th St. SW and 7th Ave. SW intersection. Also on the docket are speed tables on 21st St. SE, near Cascade Christian School and improvements along 3rd St. SW, 27th Ave. SE and Brookmonte Drive. There will also be continued improvements on 39th Ave. SW (a new four-way traffic light was just installed to cut back to South Meridian, drive it in the recent Patch video).

Tandle encouraged citizens to contact him with traffic improvement suggestions; he said many roundabouts, traffic calming devices and speed bumps around the city were thanks to public input.

Call Traffic Engineer Sanjeev Tandle with your ideas for Puyallup streets at (253) 841-5591.

What Came First, the Train or the Stoplight? ... and other highlights from the Crime Control Roundtable

The traffic signals on South Meridian are all coordinated and when a train comes it disrupts that, said Tandle. It takes two to three signal cycles (or about 3 minutes) for the lights to get back into synchronization.

Speed tables (like those in the Crystal Ridge neighborhood) are much smoother but the bumps are narrow on purpose: if you’re driving 20 mph down the road, your drive will be smooth. Any faster and you’ll feel the jolt.

Roundabouts are designed with landscaping so you can’t see around to the other side. Drivers are intuitively slower when they can’t see around them.

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