This is the rationale for fighting the installation of worm medians on Madison St. Our primary issue is safety. Worm medians make us no safer, and would force us to take dangerous U-turns into oncoming traffic going 60-70 mph! The City has agreed our our request! Thank you City Council!

1. Madison St. Access Committee
Recommendation to the LQ City Council
1/17/2011

2. Madison St. Access Committee Members
 PGA West Residents
 Rich Stenton – Chairman
 Dave Turner – Co-Chair
 Judy LeBlang – Secretary
 Dick Moore – President of Res 1
 Merv Kirshner – Developer
 Karen Pelletier
 George Harmina
 Kathy Foord
 Paula Matos
 Griffin Ranch
 Dayton Dickey

3. Agenda
 Our assessment of the situation
 Our objections to the worm medians and why
 Why Madison is different than other areas of La Quinta
with worm medians
 Our recommendations & ballpark cost
 Petition results which show that the residents back our
recommendation
 Our request of the City

4. Situation Overview
Res 1
Clubhouse
Health Club
Ernie’s
Modified Pork Chop

5. Tract Map Conditions allow for full turn
movements
 Griffin Ranch
• #60 Primary Entry (Madison Street): Full turn
movements in and out are allowed.
 Winged Foot Gate
• #26 … a traffic signal shall be installed when traffic
conditions warrant installation. The Applicant shall
participate in 100% of the cost of the traffic signal.
 Legends Gate
• #35 Full turning movements shall be allowed at the main
gated entrance located on the east side of
Madison, approx. ½ mile south of Airport Blvd.

6. Residents & Emergency Vehicles on the West
side of Madison only want to go NORTH
Res 1
Clubhouse
Health Club
Ernie’s
Modified Pork Chop

7. 90-100 cars/day from Res 1 employees are already
making U-turns at the Winged Foot gate

8. Residents on the East side of Madison DO NOT want
to be cut off from their club & friends
Res 1
Clubhouse
Health
Club

9. Large Vehicles & Landscape Trucks with
trailers can not make the U-turn
 Large vehicles (some fire engines, trash, landscapers with trailers,
RVs) can’t make a U-turn
− Captain Gil Barrier said some fire engines can’t make the U-turn
− Jose Aguilera of JAG Gardening/Landscaping and Greg Gritters of Vintage
Landscape state they cannot make the U-turn at Airport Avenue without starting
out in the traffic lane (which is a traffic hazard) when coming from Legends to
Weiskopf gate.

10. Endo Engineering’s solution to the large
vehicle issue

11. Large vehicles going from Weiskopf to the Legends
would have to go 2.6 or 4 miles out of their way

12. Average daily # of vehicles that would be
forced to take dangerous U-turns
 Based on 9 months of transponder (entrance) data & 4-1/2 months of
counter (exit) data
In Season Exits Off Season Exits
West side gates 676 421
Res 1 employees 90 90
Total 766 511
Source: Transponder Data & Counter

13. Alternatives to Forced U-turns
 Res 1 employees (no transponder access)
 South on Madison, east on Airport, north on Monroe, west on
54th
 Adds 3.87 miles to their commute
 Residents who would normally exit the Winged Foot or
Weiskopf Gates
 Exit the Stadium or Spanish Bay gates, right on 54th to Madison
 Adds 2-3 miles to their commute at 20 mph (vs. 50 mph on
Madison)
 Large vehicles that can not make a U-turn
 Adds 2.6 - 4 miles to their trip

14. Reasons our situation is different from other
areas of LQ with divided or “worm” medians
 They can avoid taking U-turns by taking a left, then another left. We
can’t without going way out of our way.
 They can get to everything they need by taking either a right or a left.
We can’t. We only go north.
 On a 3 lane roads like Jefferson, they can take a U-turn if they have
a large vehicle. We can’t.
 They are protected while taking a U-turn by a left-turn signal. We
would be
 Turning without the protection of a signal
 Turning into traffic going 50+ mph

15. Example – Calle Tampico

16. Most importantly, in our situation, worm medians
produce virtually NO savings in accidents
Even if you believe the accident rates Endo Engineering quotes, the
amount of savings in accidents does not justify the imposition of worm
medians
 Using Endo Engineering’s savings in accident rates of 0.77 accidents
per million turning vehicles, it would take us 5.8 years to save one
accident!
 It’s not as though we’d be going from 5 accidents a year to one or
zero. Installing worm medians produces virtually no improvement in
safety.
 Given the paltry improvement in safety, why would it be worth
dividing the community and angering the residents?
Source: 11/23/11 Endo Engineering Updated Traffic Study, pg. 16

17. Additional Safety Issues
 Enforcement issues
 Growth in traffic density on Madison

18. Enforcement Issues – Speed of Traffic
 Traffic on Madison is often going at rates of speed significantly in
excess of the posted speed limit
 Taking U-turns into traffic going 50-70 mph is not a good idea, especially at night
− Do a “blind” study of traffic speed on Madison
 When sitting in the left turn lane it is hard to judge the speed of oncoming
traffic, especially after dark
− Sitting in the Winged Foot or Weiskopf gates at least gives you better perspective to
view the amount and speed of oncoming traffic

19. Enforcement Issues-Wrong Way Entrances
 Vehicles & police enter worm medians the wrong
way to make illegal left hand turns
 This makes U-turns even more dangerous

20. Traffic Density on Madison
As the amount of traffic increases on Madison, we believe that, long
term, we will need signals in order to safely exit PGAW and go north
Accident Rate
per Million
Turning Vehicles U-turns
Worm Medians
Signals
Endo Eng worm
median accident rate
Density of traffic and speed of traffic on
Madison

21. Our Objections to the “worm medians”
 Safety
 Making U-turns into oncoming traffic that is often traveling in
excess of the 50 mph speed limit isn’t safe
 Even Endo Engineering’s data reveals that there would be virtually
NO improvement in safety with worm medians
 Emergency runs to the hospital would be forced out of their way
when every second counts & put in a dangerous U-turn situation
 Large vehicles would not be able to complete a U-turn
 Motorists and police entering the worms the “wrong” way add to
the risk of accidents

22. Our Objectives
 Promote public safety
• Enable residents to go north onto Madison without risking U-turns
• Enable residents on the east side of Madison to safely connect to
PGA West
 Give the City a long term plan that residents would
support
 Price out the cost for a KSL buyout

23. Our Recommendations & Rationale
 Do nothing on Madison until warranted by traffic or accidents
• All agree that no traffic control is needed at this time
• Installing worm medians makes us no safer
• It may take 10-15 years before any traffic control is needed
 Leave the tract maps as conditioned for Winged Foot/Griffin
Ranch & Weiskopf/Legends Way
• Keep residents’ preferred method of handling long term traffic growth on
Madison enshrined in the tract map. 919 PGA West & Griffin Ranch
residents support this recommendation via their signed petition.
• Long term, 5 signals along Madison (at 54th, Winged Foot/Griffin Ranch,
Airport, Weiskopf/Legends Way & 58th) do meet La Quinta’s minimum
distance requirement between signals
• Synchronizing the signals should not slow traffic
 Modify the “pork chop” planned for 58th & Black Diamond to
enable residents to go north into the Summit/Legends

24. Estimated Cost for Buyout
Madison City’s TOTAL Obligations KSL Offer Diff between
Com Original Needed under Tract What’s
Request Request Maps Needed
& Offer
#25500-4, 28603-1, 860,000 124,000 860,000 860,000 124,000 736,000
228838-1 signals at For 2 worm
Winged Ft/Griffin medians
Ranch &
Weiskopf/Legends
#29147-1 Troon Way, - - 215,000 31,000 (31,000)
Conditioned as a
signal
#29147-1 Black 31,000 31,000 322,500 30,000 1,000
Diamond & 58th Conditioned as a
Modified Pork Chop signal
#28960 Landscape & 963,500 963,500 963,500 963,500 -
Median Imprv to 58th
+ ¼ signal @
Madison & 58th
Contr to TIF fund 500,000 - - 501,500 (501,500)
TOTAL 860,000 1,618,500 1,854,500 2,361,000 1,650,000 204,500

25. Summary
 Our request is that the City
 NOT approve worm medians or any traffic control device on Madison that
would force us to take dangerous U-turns
 NOT accept the Endo Engineering traffic study to justify amending the
existing conditions
 Modify the “pork chop” planned for 58th
 Investigate alternatives (traffic signals/turn lanes) when needed
 If you agree with these recommendations, indicate that by a show of
hands
 Request that you restrict your comments to issues we have not
already covered
 We would like to reserve a few minutes at the end of the hearing for
rebuttal, if necessary
 Thank you