Southern Moreland Traffic Calming

History and Existing Conditions

Due to its physical location and adjacency to high-traffic commercial roads, the Moreland neighborhood has endured speeding vehicles, excessive traffic volume, and cut-through traffic for over 20 years. 

High traffic volume and speed are primarily experienced on two streets: Scottsdale Boulevard and Chelton Road. Both residential streets are popular cut-through routes to avoid Chagrin Boulevard, especially during rush hour. Scottsdale Boulevard experiences over 1500 cars per day and Chelton Road experiences over 600 cars per day.

When Chagrin eastbound is busy near Lee, drivers turn south on Chelton, then east on Scottsdale to get to Lee and travel southbound, thus cutting through the neighborhood and simultaneously avoiding multiple traffic signals (see traffic diagram).  

Project Overview

In 2022, the City of Shaker Heights will design and install traffic calming measures in the southern Moreland neighborhood that will address environmental inequities and positively impact residents by slowing automobiles, deterring cut-through traffic, improving pedestrian/bicyclist safety, reducing noise, decreasing stormwater run-off in a combined-sewer overflow area, providing opportunities for tree planting, mitigating the urban heat island effect, enhancing aesthetics, and improving the overall quality of life.

Resident involvement in this project has been significant and will continue throughout the duration of this project. The project originated from residents who began discussing traffic and pedestrian safety in summer 2020. Residents conducted traffic counts and met regularly to discuss their observations. City speed data shows that close to half of the vehicles exceeded posted 25 MPH speed limits, often by 20 MPH or more.

Since fall 2020, City staff and Moreland residents have discussed traffic and green infrastructure at five zoom meetings, one in-person traffic calming demonstration, and one in-person Neighbor Night.  City Planners also met with neighborhood residents to walk the neighborhood and observe traffic, and a traffic calming demonstration was held in the neighborhood in August 2021. This year-long process of engagement has energized the neighborhood about the positive effects of traffic calming and green infrastructure.

The proposed traffic calming interventions have not yet been designed and the City has hired the firm GPD Group to design the traffic calming measures with the assistance of input from neighborhood residents. The design/engineering phase will include two neighborhood meetings to assess multiple traffic calming treatments and determine the appropriate combination of improvements that provide the best results. Specific improvements will be reviewed and may include a combination of:

• Bump-outs
• Chicanes/ chokers with grass/landscaping
• Trees
• High-visibility signage/pavement markings
• Resurfacing of Scottsdale Boulevard

Implementation funding has been received from multiple sources shown below. The project must be completed in 2022 to meet grant funding requirements:

• $289,500 City funding ($202,000 Scottsdale repaving/$87,500 traffic calming)
• $221,389 Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s Green Infrastructure Grant
• $30,000 Arbor Day/Boise Paper tree planting grant

Additional grant funds are being sought.

Schedule

Documents

Southern Moreland Traffic Calming Meeting Presentation, August 5, 2021 (PDF)

News

• Shaker’s South Moreland neighborhood gets traffic-calming, green infrastructure grant (12/20/2021 )
• Arbor Day Foundation lines up alternate tree-planting grant for Shaker’s Moreland neighborhood (7/7/2021)

Staff Contacts

Planning Department: Kara Hamley O’Donnell and Cameron Roberts