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5 Dr. Brown said he would also be interested in looking at the net impact on trees of the new development, and feels it would be useful to keep a scorecard. Mr. Norris noted that Westhaven is listed as a potential development site, and he wanted to reassure residents of Westhaven that the Housing Authority is not considering the sale of Westhaven to the University. Mr. Lynch agreed with Dr. Brown’s comments about infill in the floodplain and the tree inventory. He said he thinks there is the potential to accommodate affordable housing in the new developments. REPORT : REDUCTION OF SPEED LIMITS IN CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLE Ms. Angela Tucker, Development Services Manager in the Department of Neighborhood Development Services, explained that this report is being given in response to a Council request that staff look at the implications of reducing all speed limits in the City to 25 mph. Mr. Bill Wuensch, traffic consultant for the City, reviewed factors of speed selection and functional classification of roads. He said the City has three classes of roadways: arterials, collectors and local roads, and this mix of roadways is necessary to allow for safe and efficient movement of people and goods, to prevent cut-through traffic on residential streets, and to alleviate speeding on residential streets. He said there is a national standard for setting speed limits, which includes conducting a speed study, and some of the factors that contribute to the speed limit are current travel speed of most drivers (85%), accident history, roadway geometrics, number of pedestrians using the roadway, and adjacent roadside development. Mr. Wuensch said that common misconceptions are: if you lower the speed limit, people will drive slower; people will drive faster when the speed limit is raised; and lowering the speed limit will result in fewer accidents and increase safety. Mr. Wuensch said there are three steps to stopping speeding: education (least costly and most effective), enforcement (often needed to change bad behavior) and engineering (last resort and most expensive). He said the speed limits on the following City streets are lower than the natural free-flowing travel of most drivers: Avon Street, Barracks Road, Elliott Avenue, Emmet Street, Jefferson Park th Avenue, Preston Avenue, 5 Street, S.W., and Route 250 Bypass. He presented data showing the actual speed of drivers on these streets. In summary, Mr. Wuensch said the City can do the following: address speed limits using accepted national standards; conduct a public information and education campaign (for which funding is needed); increase enforcement of existing speed limits (would require more police staff); develop appropriate, location-specific neighborhood plans (using traffic control devices, traffic calming techniques, and changes the speed limit only where necessary); and implement plans and monitor and evaluate performance. Responding to a question from Mr. Lynch, Mr. Wuensch said that no formal speed studies were done for this report, and it mainly focused on processes and procedures. Ms. Tucker said that data is available for local residential streets, but for this report those streets with speed limits over 25 mph were the focus. Dr. Browned asked if there is data available on Rugby Avenue where the speed limit was reduced from 35 mph to 25 mph. He also asked if pedestrian activity comes into the process of determining speed limits. Mr. Wench said pedestrian activity figures in the guidelines. Ms. Hamilton said she found the presentation interesting and informative. She said the City has not yet done anything in the way of education, and she does not see that imposing a blanket 25 mph speed limit will achieve what we want. She said she would want us to consider more education instead.