A stretch of 66th Street near Prairie Elementary in Prairie Village is finally receiving traffic calming measures.
After years of residents wanting some sort of traffic calming measure along 66th Street between Roe Avenue and Mission Road, the Prairie Village City Council is expected to approve two types of traffic calming devices at a crosswalk: A pedestrian beacon light and a speed table.
Public Works Director Keith Bredehoeft told the city council on March 3 that no new traffic study was conducted as part of this effort because, with the data the city and residents did have, it was unlikely the road would meet the necessary criteria to qualify for the traffic calming program anyway.
Still, residents and the city council agree that a sidewalk used by Prairie Elementary students that runs through backyards and turns into a crosswalk at 66th Street warrants traffic calming measures.
Nick Alps, a resident who lives along 66th Street, said he understands concerns about “the overuse of speed humps” in the city, but believes 66th Street is a unique situation — including “two blind crosswalks, hundreds of cars during school drop off and pick up, consistent foot traffic” and more.
“This request is about safety and to me, it feels completely defensible,” Alps said.
The city council is expected to approve the traffic calming measures along 66th Street through a consent agenda at a future meeting.
This has been a resident request for 10 years
- Bredehoeft told the city council on March 3 that he has been working with 66th Street residents for more than 10 years on traffic calming measures.
- The street failed to meet traffic calming criteria — which looks at speed, volume and cut through traffic — 10 years ago, he said. It only received 10 out of a possible 40 points to warrant adding traffic calming measures, he said.
- In 2010, the 85th percentile speed was 29 miles per hour and the street saw about 600 to 700 cars daily.
- In 2024, the 85th percentile speed was 28 miles per hour and about 750 cars per day.
- “From the traffic calming perspective, we didn’t do a new study at the current time, but with the data that we had, we didn’t see how it would get to the 40 points of the traffic calming process,” Bredehoeft said.
Councilmembers believe it is a unique situation
- A crosswalk close to Mission Road connects a unique sidewalk that runs north-south through backyards, allowing Prairie Elementary students access from school to Homestead Drive.
- Additionally, Bredehoeft said that 66th Street is a popular drop-off and pick-up destination for Prairie Elementary students, posing another concern.
- Councilmembers Nick Reddell, Terry O’Toole, Chi Nguyen and Cole Robinson all spoke in support of traffic calming measures along 66th Street.
- Councilmember Dave Robinson cautioned that the city council cannot “pick and choose when we get to listen to experts,” noting that the governing body earlier in the meeting followed a city commission’s advice on neighborhood design guidelines instead of going with what residents wanted.
City to install pedestrian beacon light, speed table
- Bredehoeft recommended the installation of pedestrian beacon lights, which, upon pushing a button, flash lights to alert drivers of the crosswalk.
- The street is also getting a speed table to help pedestrian safety, Bredehoeft said.
- The city council ultimately agreed to place both a speed table and pedestrian beacon lights along this stretch of 66th Street.
- At a future meeting, the traffic calming measures for 66th Street will likely appear on a consent agenda.
- Consent agenda items are considered either routine enough or previously discussed and are normally approved in one motion without discussion.
Tomahawk Road might get traffic calming measures too
This comes about a month after the city council directed city staff to move forward with lowering the speed limit from 30 to 25 miles per hour along Tomahawk Road between Roe Avenue and Mission Road. Traffic calming measures are also being considered for this stretch of Tomahawk Road.
Similarly to the 66th Street discussion, traffic engineers recommended no changes to Tomahawk Road after completing a traffic study for that request.
Go deeper: Watch the city council’s entire discussion online here starting at 2:17:33.
