D Street Traffic Calming Pilot Project FAQ’s

• The outbound (away from downtown) direction between 1) El Rose Drive and 1290 D Street and 2) Laurel Avenue and 8th Street.
• The inbound (towards downtown) direction between 8th Street and 4th Street.

1. To park where parking is permitted.
2. To enter or leave the roadway.
3. To prepare for a turn within a distance of 200 feet from the intersection.

Delivery drivers and service workers can continue to park in driveways of homes on D Street, as well as in available parking spaces on D Street or on nearby side streets. Areas where parking is prohibited will be clearly marked by red curbs and/or signage.

If you live along a section of D Street without on-street parking, place choose one of the following locations to place your garbage bins:

1. (Preferred) On top of the curb within the “landscaping strip,” between the curb and sidewalk (as shown in the rendering below), leaving the sidewalk clear.
2. Flush against the curb within the bike lane.

Please note the California Vehicle Code prohibits placing any object in the bike lane that impedes safe passage for people biking.

If you live along a section of D Street with on-street parking, please place your garbage bins within the parking lane, leaving the bike lane clear.

Our Public Works & Utilities department works closely with our Fire Department on all street projects that could potentially impact emergency response abilities. Our Fire Department has been engaged on the full D Street Traffic Calming Pilot Project design process, including changes to parking and the design of the 5th Street diverter. 

Emergency vehicles are permitted to stop, stand, and park at the curb in areas where on-street parking is prohibited.   

After the 5th Street diverter was installed, the Fire Department brought their 55’ foot ladder truck (their largest and most difficult to maneuver vehicle) to the diverter and confirmed they are able to navigate it in its current form. They also offered suggestions for a few minor adjustments that would enhance their ability to maneuver the intersection. Those changes will be implemented in the fall of 2024. 

Additionally, Fire has reviewed response routes and confirmed their ability to serve the surrounding area with the 5th Street diverter in place. The street grid allows for several different ways to navigate through the area with minimal impacts to response time.

During the design phase, City staff reached out to Petaluma Paratransit, which provides curb-to-curb service to help assist people with limited mobility, to discuss their needs when it comes to picking up residents in locations without on-street parking.

Paratransit is able to provide drop-off service on driveways in special circumstances if needed and safe to operate (determined on a case-by-case basis). Staff confirmed that all homes on D Street have a driveway. If you are in need of Petaluma Paratransit service, please contact them directly: (707) 778-4460.

Our team has reached out to Paratransit for feedback since the pilot project was implemented to better understand any challenges that have arisen and develop potential solutions. The City may designate an area with red curb as a bus stop if needed, which would enable Paratransit to use red curb areas to load or unload passengers.

Double-Yellow Lines
Double-yellow lines are intended to prohibit unsafe passing by motorists. Along with the newly installed medians (more on that below), these will encourage safer, slower driving throughout the corridor. Per the California Vehicle Code, you are still permitted to turn left across double-yellow lines to access and exit your driveway. Interestingly, D Street had existing double-yellow lines prior to this restriping, though they were faded and needed to be re-painted. Now that they are newly-installed, they are more pronounced and much brighter.

Double Sets of Double-Yellow Lines
Additionally, there are several areas (approaching Laurel Avenue, 10th Street, 7th Street, and 5th Street) with double sets of double-yellow lines that we’re using to create new medians. Many have rightly pointed out that these double sets of double-yellow lines prohibit left turns.

We have modified the striping in these areas to make it clear that people who live adjacent to medians still have full access to their driveways. We have also removed the double-yellow lines in the 7th Street intersection to allow left turns on and off of 7th Street.

The medians serve as a traffic calming and pedestrian safety feature. In the coming weeks, you will see rubber curbs added near crosswalks within the painted median area to create pedestrian refuge islands. These will call additional attention to the crosswalks and provide pedestrians with an area to pause and focus on crossing one direction of traffic at a time, reducing exposure to traffic.

In addition to improving pedestrian safety, the medians cause the lanes to shift, which should require more attentive driving at slower speeds. We will be gathering speed data throughout the pilot project to monitor these impacts.

We installed a “traffic diverter” at the intersection of 5th and D Streets, which prohibits left turns from D onto 5th and left turns from 5th onto D, as well as prevents crossing D St. on 5th. This new condition will help to slow vehicle speeds, reduce collisions, and improve crossings for people on foot and bikes at this historically high collision intersection. We understand it will take some getting used to and are alerting road users via “Changed Conditions” signs in the area.

Since the installation of the pilot project, we have heard some residents are concerned with their ability to see clearly when exiting driveways on D Street. The City is willing to consider and install red curb adjacent to driveways upon request. Since the pilot project was installed, one resident has requested red curb near their driveway, which we were happy to provide. 

Residents who are comfortable doing so are encouraged to back-in to driveways, which is a safer maneuver for all road users than when drivers back out. To do so, drivers may pull ahead of their driveway in the bike lane and put their right blinker on (a legal maneuver), then back in. This is also safer for people biking, as they can see and anticipate the movement in a way that they cannot always when someone backs out of a driveway.

The pilot project design was developed following a robust community engagement effort over the past two years that included multiple rounds of community workshops and surveys, as well as Council feedback and approval in spring of 2024. Our team of licensed traffic engineers designed a pilot project that addressed the top priorities we heard from the community:

1. Slow traffic
2. Improve pedestrian crossings
3. Improve bicycling conditions

PROJECT UPDATE FROM CHRISTOPHER BOLT, PUBLIC WORKS & UTILITIES DIRECTOR: JUNE 28, 2023
Our Public Works & Utilities Director emailed those who have subscribed to project updates detailing proposed next steps, which include a “Phase I” project that aims to deliver traffic calming and pedestrian enhancements this fall.

• Project Update (sent via email June 28)
• Revised Concept Map

PROJECT SURVEY #2: MAY 8 – MAY 24, 2023
In response to feedback received at our April 26, 2023 community workshop, we made a new survey available focusing primarily on the proposed lane configuration and bicycle route preferences. 261 people took the survey.

• Survey #2 Results

COMMUNITY WORKSHOP #2: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 2023
The City hosted its second community workshop to introduce and seek feedback on the proposed design. The meeting was attended by 55 people.

• Presentation Materials
• Meeting Recording

Proposed Design
The proposed design includes several traffic calming, pedestrian, and intersection safety enhancements, as well as bike lanes in both directions between Petaluma Boulevard South and City Limits. In order to provide bike lanes in both directions, on-street parking would be prohibited on one side of the street between 4th Street and Laurel Avenue. Staff performed three weekday parking counts (morning, afternoon, and nighttime) and found that, on average,14 percent of on-street parking is utilized between 4th Street and Laurel Avenue. Parking counts were used to identify which side of the street had higher parking utilization; the resulting configuration includes parking on the inbound side of the street between 4th Street and 8th Street, and on the outbound side between 8th Street and Laurel Avenue.

COMMUNITY WORKSHOP #1: OCTOBER 18, 2022
The City hosted a virtual community workshop to introduce the project and hear community concerns and ideas. The meeting was attended by 70 people.

• Presentation Materials
• Meeting Recording

Illegal or unsafe use of D Street can be reported online HERE or by calling the Petaluma Police Department's non-emergency line at (707) 778-4373.