The city's newest park is about to get a high-tech crosswalk in the hopes of making pedestrians safer.
The Santa Maria City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to create a mid-block crosswalk on South College Drive just south of Bradley Road featuring a painted crosswalk, pedestrian-activated flashing lights, and a median in the street giving pedestrians a safe place to stop while crossing the four-lane road.
Additionally, the driving lanes between McCoy Lane and Sunrise Drive will be repainted and narrowed from 12 feet to 11 feet. By reducing the width, officials hope drivers will slow down on the stretch of road, which has a posted speed limit of 40 mph.
The project is expected to cost more than $15,000, the bulk of which is the construction of the pedestrian refuge area, according to city staff members.
Funding will most likely come from the city's gas tax revenues, said Public Works Director/City Engineer Dave Whitehead.
The proposal first went to the city's Traffic Committee in February in an effort to answer concerns from area residents who wanted a crosswalk to allow them easier access to Rotary Centennial Park, which includes a new ball field, according to the staff report.
The new crosswalk is planned to connect two walkways - one within the park and one within the subdivision - on either side of South College.
“It's intended to be convenient,” Whitehead said. “It looked like ... a natural location to accomplish the goal.”
Included in the council staff report were alternatives to creating the crosswalk, such as adding a stoplight at the Bradley Road intersection or putting up fencing to discourage mid-block crossing at the proposed location.
Whitehead noted that the Bradley Road and South College Drive intersection did not meet the necessary requirements for a traffic signal at this time - though it is identified as a possible future signal location. He added that traffic signals are expensive and can solve some problems but generate others.
Malia Spencer can be reached at 739-2219 or mspencer@santa
mariatimes.com.
March 21, 2007
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