Dear Mayor Cantelmo,

We the undersigned City residents respectfully request that the City of Ithaca begin to address the longstanding safety and quality of life issues that the Cliff Street neighborhood must deal with.  While often referred to as the “Route 96 corridor,” we are a neighborhood of some 50 homes that on a daily basis experience the heaviest through traffic of any city neighborhood.  At almost 11,500 vehicles per day, traffic through the  Cliff Street neighborhood is double that of Hector St. (NYS 79), Mitchell St./Ithaca Rd. (NYS 366), East State St. (NYS 79) and Floral Ave. (NYS 13A), and consistently moves at a speed well above the City’s 30 mph speed limit.  This traffic includes and high volume of heavy truck traffic, which due to the steep 5% gradient of the street, truck drivers habitually resort to use of their extremely noisy “Jake” brakes through the core of the neighborhood.

Although the Cliff Street neighborhood is greatly impacted by the heavy traffic residents experience on the daily basis, we lack the basic traffic safety infrastructure that other Ithaca neighborhoods enjoy.

• There  are only five speed limit signs on Cliff Street, which is roughly 50% the number of such signs as Aurora St., East St., and Mitchell St./Ithaca Rd., proportional to their respective lengths. 
• The Cliff Street neighborhood lacks the YOUR SPEED radar triggered signs that protect the other neighborhoods;
• Despite the large number of pedestrians crossing Cliff Street daily, and the proximity of its single sidewalk to adjacent traffic, there are no crosswalks, and no pedestrian warning signs anywhere along the street, whereas there are over 40 such signs protecting residents of Floral Ave., Mitchell St./Ithaca Rd., East State St., and Hector St.
• Cliff Street also carries a significant amount of bicycle traffic, which often resorts to using the sidewalk out of legitimate safety concerns.  
The level of traffic noise within the Cliff Street neighborhood, which is often a function of vehicle speed, is well above the generally accepted norms of 55 dB(A) to 60 dB(A) for residential neighborhoods. A recent sampling of traffic noise level from a distance of 15 feet – the typical building setback in the neighborhood – recorded noises levels between 64 dB(A) and 79 dB(A), the median being 73.3 dB(A).  This noise was generated almost entirely by automobile and light pickup trucks, with no large trucks, but is nonetheless well above a healthy noise level for a residential neighborhood. No heavy trucks passed through during the sampling times, however according to available literature, they can generate noise volumes in excess of 100 dB(A) when operating their Jake brake.

We are individually and collectively working to maintain and improve our homes and our neighborhood, but our neighborhood is very much stressed by the growing environmental impacts of the City’s decision 30 years ago to keep heavy Rte. 96 traffic on our street, impacts that are being exacerbated by the consistent neglect of our neighborhood displayed by City Hall.

Sincerely,

xc: Alderwoman Kayla Matos, Alderwoman Phoebe Brown