Description

Requesting to make Allen Park city limits a "Quiet Zone" from 10:30 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. as an official, per ordinance, directive. This would include the following:

1. Police sirens after 10:30 p.m. are muted.
2. Ambulance sirens after 10:30 p.m. are muted.
3. Fire trucks after 10:30 p.m. are muted.
4. Champaign Street train crossing a complete "Quiet Zone". The Federal Railroad Administration has a rule as follows:

The train horn rule requires that locomotive horns be sounded at all public highway grade crossings, except where there is no significant risk to persons, where supplementary safety measures fully compensate for the absence of the warning provided by the horn, or where the sounding of the horn as a warning is not practical.

This "Quiet Zone" rule would work well on Champaign Street because of the following:

1. The Senior Citizen's Housing is 150 feet from the crossing and silence of horns through the night would benefit the residents.
2. Champaign Street has crossing gates that raise and lower and are visible and unobstructed. More quiet but visible safety measures could be incorporated, if needed.
3. The local area is a residential area with younger families who would benefit by not having children awoke through the night by a train horn.
4. There is lower traffic volume between 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. on Champaign Street to minimize the need for a loud train horn. After 10:30 p.m. most, if not all, school related activities and events are completed. At 6 a.m. early risers can use the train horn to wake up and midnight shift employees usually get finished working around the 6 a.m. time frame.
5. The train traffic usually moves very slow through Champaign Street crossing because trains are either heading out of the Melvindale Train Yard or are entering the Melvindale Train Yard. Both ways serve to slow train traffic and make the crossing safer.

Please analyze this request and implement this "Quiet Zone" for all Allen Park residents. There is a safety aspect of horn usage, but since Allen Park is not as commercially and residentially busy during the stated "Quiet Zone" time and is located so near the beginning or end of the Melvindale Train Yard, this would be very helpful if implemented.