ok.
We
ll start momentarily.
Give him one more minute.
Jim was here and he just
stepped out. He was coming
right back.
No.
There we go.
I think, did I hear Jim out
there? I thought so. Ok.
Peet, are we ready? Yes sir,
we
re good. Ok, we
ll call this
meeting to order. If the clerk
will, uh, call the roll. Sure,
council member lines council
member San Antonio present
council member Schaeffer.
Deputy Mayor o
Hara.
Mayor Ehler record will show
all members of the city council
are present tonight.
Ok, this is a special meeting
of the Encinitas City Council.
Uh, we have one item on
tonight
s meeting, and that is
Roadway safety and traffic
enforcement in the city of
Encinitas and the contact
person is director of
engineering Nutter.
With that, we
ll start with a,
uh, staff report. All right.
Well, good afternoon, MR. Mayor
and council members. My name is
Dan Nutter. I
m the director of
engineering and city engineer
for the city, uh, along with me
this afternoon, I have Matt
Widowski, Assistant Director of
Engineering, uh, Abe Bandigan,
the city traffic engineer, and
Shane Watts, who is the captain
of the sheriff
s office for uh
North Coast.
Uh, today we
ll be talking and
discussing about roadway safety
and traffic enforcement.
So we
re gonna be discussing
the five e
s of traffic safety.
We
re gonna highlight current
city programs, projects, and
initiatives regarding traffic
safety.
We
re going to show the city
s
financial commitment to Traffic
City, uh, traffic safety.
Uh, and then we
ll conclude
with city council having
discussion.
So first I want to get into the
5 e
s of traffic safety.
Now the 5 years of traffic
safety are a comprehensive
approach to improving roadway
safety for everyone. Uh, now
this is a framework that
s
evolved over time, uh, starting
in the 1920s, this was actually
the three e
s of traffic safety.
Uh, so over the years we
ve,
we
ve evolved a bit and uh now
it
s, it
s industry standard
that we have these five e
s.
Oh,
Is that a little better? Am I
not talking in the mic? I
apologize. Well, thank you guys.
Uh, so the five e
s of traffic
safety are comprised of
engineering, education,
enforcement, encouragement and
evaluation, uh, now really do
want to make it clear that
these 5 e
s, uh, this is really
a community comprehensive
approach, so it
s not just the
city, it
s also really engaging
the public as well.
Uh, so engineering is designing
and maintaining roadway
infrastructure to reduce risk
and protect
Uh, Education is teaching
people safe behaviors and
building awareness for all road
users, enforcement is promoting
safe behaviors and deterring
deterring dangerous choices
through fair and consistent
enforcement.
Encouragement is creating a
culture that supports and
reinforces reinforces positive,
safe choices, and evaluation is
making database decisions to
analyze risks and implement
countermeasures to to
continuously improve our
programs and projects.
So engineering safer streets by
design. Uh, so the city has
over 45, uh, current and in
progress.
Projects, programs, and
initiatives regarding
engineering and infrastructure,
um.
Don
t have all day to talk
about all of them. I wish I did,
but this is, is a, uh, only a 2
hour meeting, so I
m gonna just
highlight some of the more
important of the bunch.
All right, is that any better?
Ok, I
m trying not to eat the
microphone.
Uh, so the first of which is
our citywide lowering of speed
limits, that
s per ab 43 and ab
382, uh, so we did our first
cut at lowering speed limits,
uh, in 2022 and back in MAY of
this year, council approved uh
for staff to lower, uh, um.
Roadway speeds on 13 different
roadways, and this is really
something that I wanted to be
clear, is creating real results,
uh, our traffic engineering
team completed a traffic, uh,
speed survey back in the summer
of 2025, and that showed that
we
ve lowered speeds across the
city and averaged 2.2 mph. Uh,
so really it that showing that
we are doing the right things,
we
re going in the right
direction, a great results.
Uh, we have an initiative where
we are red curbing within
school zones, uh, per the
state
s daylighting law to make
sure that pedestrians, uh,
specifically students and
parents, uh, there are more
visibility, uh, for. Oh,
perfect. Ok, um.
For more visibility for those
students and and uh parents as
they
re walking through
crosswalks, we
re enhancing
visibility at pedestrian
crossings where improving
bicycle and pedestrian
facilities were optimizing
traffic signal performance, and
we are initiating an adaptive
signal timing pilot program, uh,
those two last ones, the
traffic signal related items
are really important for our
corridors to help reduce
queuing, um, that helps reduce
the number of crashes, um, red
light running.
Things of that nature.
We have a safe routes to school
program, um, every year our
traffic engineering team works
with the various school
districts, and we come up with
important pedestrian and
bicycle improvements, uh, this
is a snippet of some of the
improvements that we
ve done
with our fiscal year 26 program
that ended uh just a couple of
months back on the top left, we
have a new signalized uh
crosswalk along El Camino Real,
that
s at Crest Street.
Uh, bottom left is a new
rectangular rapid flashing
beacon at Requasia and then on
the right is a new rrfb at
Vulcan and Glaucus.
Not only do we care about
having safe crossings for
pedestrian and bicyclists along
all of our roadways, but we
also care about having safe
crossings along the railroad
tracks. Um.
We have 3 distinct projects
with 6 pedestrian and bicycle
crossings, uh, that are in
progress right now uh with the
city, uh, now some really great
news, if, if you have not heard,
uh, the city was actually
awarded a $33.6 million dollar
grant by the Federal Railroad
Administration. Uh, we heard
about a week and a half ago, uh,
that
s gonna help make these 3
projects a reality. Uh, two of
the, uh, renderings that you
see here, uh, those are related
toward Leucadia at grade
crossing projects. So again,
really important safety
infrastructure improvements.
We
ve been installing
pedestrian refuge islands. So
you
re seeing more of these
across the city. Uh, this
really helps break long
crossings into smaller, more
manageable segments. Uh, this
here is on Highway 101 at 8th
Street. Uh, we recently
installed a new refuge island
on Lucadia Boulevard at Hygia.
We have a new one planned for
Saxony at the ymca, uh, and
then we also have one, plan per
council direction at the
Village Parkway at Parkdale
Lane.
We
re installing rectangular
rapid flashing beacons or RRFBs,
you
re, you
re seeing these
around town. Uh, this would be
something that we would be
installing at uncontrolled
intersections to help provide a
higher visibility for our
pedestrians that are crossing
the roadway. Uh, it
s also an
active measure to improve
driver awareness for pedestrian
activity, and one of the really
important aspects here is it
s
cost effective solution that we
can deploy very quickly.
Uh, leading pedestrian interval,
uh, or lpi, that
s a recent
project that we
ve installed at
uh nearly all of our signalized
intersections, and what that
does is that allows pedestrians
to start crossing in the
crosswalk before vehicles are
able to go, um, and that really
helps reduce conflicts between
pedestrians and vehicles.
We
re improving visibility with
our signal upgrades, so over
the last couple months, you
ve
likely seen our initiative, uh,
where we are starting to, uh,
install a high visibility
reflective traffic signal
backplates uh on our traffic
signals. So this really helps
reduce red light running and
certain types of intersection
crashes.
As an example, uh, this is
Highway 101 at Lucadia
Boulevard. Uh, you see the, the
before on the left and the
after on the right, and you see
Leuccadia Roadside Park in the
background, uh, really a nice
heightened, uh, ability for us
to, uh, show our uh traffic
signals.
Ok, onto e number 2, education.
We
re reaching residents,
students and visitors.
Uh, the sheriff
s office does a
know your limits campaign to
help educate, uh, limits of
intoxication for drivers. They
go out to the community a
couple of times a year, uh,
really, really great event.
i
ve been out before, um, and
it helps individuals that are
out on the town, understand
what that level of intoxication
truly feels like.
You have bicycle education and
safety courses, so our parks
and rec department, um, twice a
month they offer a 2 hour
bicycle skills and education
safety course, uh, this is
always packed. Uh, it
s a great
event, highly recommend you
attend it if you have not, uh,
especially if you have a
younger bike riders.
And then we do e-bike safety
training and public outreach.
So on AUGUST 4th, uh, we had a
joint city and Sheriff e-bike
safety workshop.
And on AUGUST 19th, city
council held an e-bike safety
public meeting.
Ok, onto e number 3,
enforcement. We
re deterring
dangerous behaviors.
In fiscal year 26, uh, city
council funded 2 new traffic
enforcement deputies.
Uh, the sheriff
s office does
monthly traffic blitzes with
targeted enforcement.
Uh, they do e-bike enforcement,
including seizures of e-bikes.
And want to make a special note
that city council is gonna hold
a public meeting to discuss and
explore the applicability of
red light camera detection for
sb 720 on SEPTEMBER 9th of this
year.
Now with that, I
m gonna hand
it over to Captain Watts to
talk a little bit more about
enforcement.
Thank you, Dan, um, Captain
Watts with the sheriff
s office
out of the North Coastal
Station, um, you know.
Where I fit in and in this
conversation, I think is very
important, um, and, you know,
enforcement in itself is
obviously important and we have
done more we have really
maximized our resources we have
looked at how we can really
change driver behavior with, um,
maximizing enforcement, but.
For me, more of the
conversation, you know,
education plays a huge piece in
this as well, and that
s why we
have done a lot of education,
um, one of the slides I
ll show
here in a second, you know, it
captures how we
ve maximize our
enforcement, how we are doing
more out on our roadways, uh,
to change driver behavior, but
what it doesn
t capture is the
countless contacts that we have
with the community that um you
know, results in the, uh, in a
warning or that it
s a.
Chance for education. It
s a
chance to have that
communication and, you know, I,
I, I do believe that, uh, yes,
enforcement is necessary, but a
lot of times the person that
leaves with a warning comes
away with just as much as
somebody that leaves with a
ticket. So I think it
s, uh,
appropriate, um, that we
balance that and we make sure
that uh for one that we are
doing that enforcement. We are
maximizing it, but when there
is room for education that we,
uh, give some education. Um,
another part of that that.
Um,
I think is equally important is
the community and working with
our community partners to
address some of these, um,
concerned areas on our roadways
that need more focused
enforcement or just need us to
go out there and see what the
community
s seeing, um, I, I
mean recently we went out on a
bike ride, um, and we actually
rode with community members. We
rode around the city and we
looked at areas from their
perspective on.
Uh, where we could, we could do
more enforcement and even other
areas that we can improve as a
whole with the city, um, so, uh,
working with our community, um,
and bringing them in has been
such a reward working with Safe
Streets and uh hearing the
ideas and uh our our mts
commission has been wonderful.
They have really been a huge
help, um, but I think that that
is important is really engaging
with the community.
Doing the enforcement and also
that education and I will say
you know as a whole, as we go
into the slides, I think that
that whole um circle approach
is where and how we have gotten
to where we are now. So next
slide, please. So if you look,
um, once again, uh, I have
always said that I am always
looking to maximize our
resources. I
m always looking
for those, uh, deputy initiated
activities, those proactive
contacts to
Improve. So improving off of,
uh, 2025, you can see that we
are continuing to approve this
year. We are, we are ahead of
where we were last year, and we
continue that upward trend, um,
and this is the momentum that
we continue to strive for and
and build upon, um, but you
know.
It
s only meaningful if the
results are meaningful, um, and
so when I look at, ok, we are
maximizing our enforcement, but
the real goal is to change
driver behavior so that our
roadways are safer. So next
slide please.
So that
s when this comes, you
know, I, I constantly am
looking at this to see monthly
where we are as far as
collisions throughout the city
and as you can see, um, we are.
We have less collisions this
year so far than we did last
year. Um, those are, uh, the
results of everything I
mentioned before and with the
enforcement, but I really think,
and I
m optimistic to think
that we are changing that
driver behavior. People are
slowing down with some of the
measures that we
ve done with
the city, um, some of the
infrastructure change, um, I
think people are paying more
attention. Um, they
re not on
their cell phones like they
were.
They
re not speeding as much as
they were, um, we
re, we
re
really putting that message out
to stop at stop signs, stop at
red lights. Um, it
s not worth.
Running a red light or a stop
sign, putting everybody else on
the roadway, um, in danger. So,
uh, I am happy we
re with where
we are. I think that, um, you
know, the summertime, we get so
many people that come into our,
um, city to enjoy our beaches
and our establishments, um, and
that
s when traditionally we
have seen a rise in collisions,
but I really think that because
the word has gotten out, we
ve
placed, um, even our, uh,
digital signs as you come into
our community.
To let people know, to slow
down, um, we
re paying
attention. There
s more of us
out there and we are doing more
enforcement, so I
m happy with
where we are. There
s still
room for improvement. We will
continue to improve.
Next slide.
Um, this was one of the areas
that when I was looking at our,
uh, DUIs.
You know, um, I wanted, and we,
I think, needed at the time and,
um, when we presented it to the
city and to the council and
mayor that we really needed
that extra enforcement for our
DUIs and when we were able to
add those two dui, uh, deputies
that are solely out there
looking to take these impaired
drivers off our roadways to
make them safer. Um, we saw our
arrests go up, but we also
started to.
See that there were more ride
shares at some of our
establishments at the end of
the, at the end of the night,
which is a positive thing
that
s what we want. We want
people to make those smart
decisions, not get in their car,
um, while they, while they
re
intoxicated, and that
s where
uh the know your limits. I
think that was huge. We went
out there with the community
and there were so many people
that came up to our booth as an
educational piece and they blew
in our breathalyzer and they
were astonished that they were
over the legal limit, um, and
they.
Many of them said, I thought I
probably was ok to drive and
they made smarter choices that
night, and it
s that ripple
effect that we
re looking for.
So we
ve done it twice, we
ll
continue to do those, um.
And getting ahead of those DUIs
is so important because if we
can take them off the roadway
before a collision, before they
crash into our infrastructure,
um, then we are all safer, and
that is the commitment that, uh,
I make. That
s the commitment
that our deputies are out there
making.
Next slide.
And then once again, when we
look at the results, um, yes,
we
re doing more enforcement,
but what does that look like?
And what it looks like is we
re
having less dui collisions. So,
our infrastructure is not being,
um, constantly, uh, hit, um, or
roundabouts or are being
navigated appropriately and, um,
we
re not seeing those
collisions as a result of
impaired driving, um, so I
think that, you know, as long
as we keep those.
Um,
And we
re, we continue to focus
on, yes, the enforcement, but
we should see some positive
results as well. And I think we
are seeing that. I think I
m
happy on the road that we are
going. Like I said, there
s
always room for improvement, um,
and I have committed many times
that that will be my commitment
is that we are consistently and
constantly looking for outside
of the box ideas, um, the
traffic safety monthly, uh,
enforcement, you know, that
that
s something that.
It now has gotten to other
cities. I
ve had phone calls
from other cities. I
ve had, uh,
phone calls from other station
captains asking like, what are
you guys doing over there? What,
what, tell me more about these,
um, enforcement days because
it
s not often that a captain
and a lieutenants and all the
sergeants and your detectives
are all in uniform in a patrol
car out making stops. And I
m
out there making stops and I
m
talking to the community, um,
but that
s important because it
takes all of us.
To make those changes. Um, so
I
m proud of the efforts that
we have, uh, made, um, and we
will continue to, to push
forward, uh, roadway safety
will be my priority. Vision
Zero, I do not want to lose one
life on our roadways, um.
And so anything and everything
that I can do to prevent that
and to educate our drivers, our,
uh, bicyclists, our
e-bicyclists, I
m gonna
continue to do that.
And working with our uh with
the uh traffic mobility
commission, um, you know, when
I started really looking at the,
the information that we were
providing them, um, it, it.
It wasn
t what, um, it needed
to be. Um, if we truly want to
give them the tools to, um,
look at some of these areas or
make some change, then we have
to provide them with the
information that they need to
do that. Um, and, you know, the,
the, the, well, that
s how
we
ve always done it. That
s
not good enough. If we can make
it better, we
ll make it better.
And I was so happy and, and, um,
appreciative to be able to sit
down with, uh, some of the
commissioners to really
make this report something that
was tangible and something that
they could act upon, um, and we
have gotten it to a point where
I really think there
s a lot
there, um, next slide, please.
One of the examples is we are
now showing as the year
progresses, what are traffic
accidents where they
re
occurring and you can start to
see on the map where our, you
know, problematic or concerns
are, and we need to
start looking at those areas to
see is, is it an enforcement
issue? Do we need to do more
enforcement? Is it, um, a
result of infrastructure. What
is that? And I think that by
providing them with this
information, it
s giving us
that perspective and allowing
us to start focusing in where
we can make some positive
change.
Next slide. Same with our dui,
uh, enforcement. This is, uh,
one of the things that we
started doing to show where
these dui arrests are occurring
and what wasn
t captured in the
previous slide that showed the
total amount is a lot of these
DUIs, um, they either are, by
the time that we get behind
them, we observed the impaired
driving, and we are ready to
make that traffic stop. They
d
be exited our city, so the
contact happens in another
jurisdiction.
Or they have, uh, gone onto the
freeway, the on-ramp, um, so
that when we actually do make
that arrest, it doesn
t count
in our statistics. It counts in
the city of the arrest. Um, so
there
s actually more than what
is, uh, being shown, but, um, I
think it
s interesting to see
where these arrests are
occurring.
And I think with that I
ll turn
it back over.
Ok.
Uh, 4 encouragement, where we
are developing positive habits.
So, uh, here at the city, we
have a culture built around
safety where we are encouraging
residents to consistently
practice and promote safe
transportation habits daily.
We have our school crossing
guard program. Uh, this is a
fifty-fifty cost share between
the city and the school
districts, and it
s a
cost-effective and safe program
that helps uh keep our kids and
parents safe while they
re
walking to and from school, uh,
city council added a 15th
crossing guard for fiscal year
27, so really an awesome and
important program for us here
at the city, um, and the
community.
You
ve likely seen our
changeable message signs uh
deployed throughout the city.
This was a city council
initiated request by the deputy
mayor, um, and it
s really been
a, a great tool where we, we
are able to give um awareness
and behavior feedback, uh,
immediately, and that helps
disrupt and interrupt a routine
driving habits, so that way the
hope and thought is while
you
re driving along, you are
seeing some of these signs and.
Creating good habits, uh,
regularly.
Our speed radar feedback signs.
Uh, so these are, are wonderful
to help give you an immediate
um.
Idea of what your speed is. I,
I know you
re not always
looking at your speedometer. So
the speed radar feedback signs
do a great job of giving you
that immediate feedback that
really hopes to uh encourage
drivers to slow down when
needed.
And number 5 is evaluation
where we are making data-driven
decisions. So, Encinitas uses
data analysis to direct
resources in the appropriate
location to increase roadway
safety. Uh, an example of this
is our local roadway safety
plan, or lrsp, um, the lrsp is
an has analyzed collision
patterns and prioritize
evidence-based countermeasures
like leading pedestrian
interval and speed management
to enhance safety. So that is a
document.
That we have compiled and that
has been approved by council
and it has projects uh that are
uh based on priority that the
city is currently moving
forward with implementing.
Uh, I also wanted to touch base
and, and uh speak briefly on
our draft comprehensive safety
action plan. Uh, so our
comprehensive safety Action
Plan or cisap, um, that is a
document that similarly is data
driven, um.
And on that.
We do have to make an update to
the circulation element, which
is currently underway. Uh, that
includes the safe system
approach. Uh, once our
circulation element is
finalized, uh, we will move
forward with, uh, that draft
csap to finalize the csap, uh,
but did want to make clear that
even though this is supposed to
be a comprehensive safety
action plan. It
s actually not
comprehensive. Um, it only
discusses incis Boulevard and
El Camino Real, uh, so that is
another adjustment that we need
to look at.
Uh, potentially for, uh, the
finalization of our csap, uh,
but the real important thing
here is not the document or
whether it
s in draft or final
form.
Is the reality that we
ve
already as a city implemented
40 of the near term projects.
So, um, whether it
s been
finalized or not, we still
utilize that document to
determine important projects to
move forward on.
Uh, here
s an example of our
lrsp. On the left is a little
bit of a heat map, uh, that
s
collision, uh, based
information, and then on the
right, uh, that is one of the
tables within the document that
gives you a, an analyzed
determination of uh based on
cost of what are most um or
highest intersection collision
area um and prioritization
would be.
Now
Even though there are a lot of
great things that we
ve been
talking about, um.
What have, what
s the city
really committed to these, uh,
so the financial commitment has
been extraordinary. Uh, when I
started putting these numbers
together, I, I was really,
really actually amazed by uh by
all the, the money that we are,
uh, putting towards the five
e
s, uh, so over the last two
fiscal years, our expenditures
plus the the estimated
expenditures for this fiscal
year.
Or over $60 million. Uh, so
that
s $1.6 million for the two
new traffic deputies.
That
s over $560,000 for a
school crossing guard program,
$58 million for roadway safety
infrastructure improvements.
$160,000 for a bike safety
education, uh, so it
s not just
talk here at the city, really,
it is a huge investment and
extremely important to us.
Uh, so, ultimately, to conclude,
uh, the city has an integrated
safety program.
We utilize the Five e
s
framework, we have a sustained
investment.
And we have a community
collaborative approach to
roadway safety and traffic
enforcement.
Thank you.
So for, I guess.
First of all, any questions of
clarification from city council.
If not, we
ll go to public. How
many speakers? 20 speakers, so
I mean we want to do public
input tonight. So we
re gonna
do the full 3 minutes and
that
s gonna take us an hour,
hopefully, people can be prompt
if you could, uh, the next stop
and the next, next up, if you
can move to the front row, just,
uh, keep it moving quickly. We
want to get through this an
hour, in an hour, so we have
time to, to discuss up here too.
So, with that, 1st 3 speakers,
Paul Chester, followed by Patty
Stoudemire, and then Ron Medek.
Hello.
I had 2
I submitted two visual aids.
Uh, one, first one.
No.
The first one that
That
s the 2nd 1, but the 1st 1
that I presented, uh, I had
submitted on the 14th to the uh
engineering department.
Uh, the second one was, uh, I,
I wrote to the.
Author of an article which was
in the Encinitas Advocate.
On the
7th of AUGUST after she wrote
an article about.
Uh, the deaths of children over
the last couple of years, let
s
hold the, uh, time for a minute
here. Um um, do we have both
and uh, you do? Ok.
Just wanted to check, ok go
ahead the first one.
If I could
Go to the other one first.
Ok, has to do, this is the one
I had submitted to the engineer
department. The crosswalk,
which is an equestrian,
pedestrian crosswalk in on uh
El Camino.
Um, El Norte.
Uh, where there was fatality a
month ago.
The problem there and I
ve been
walking and running this area,
jogging this area for over 40
years.
Is that
When during the summer when the
sun.
Comes up from the east right
down the road, it is blinding
to cars headed eastward and,
and around 5 or 67 o
clock at
this time of year, it
s
blinding to those going
westward, and that was involved,
that involved in that accident
or the driver didn
t see the
person and so what I
m think,
while they have blink, the
blinking blinking lights at the
crosswalk since the cars are
speeding.
like 40, 50 miles an hour.
It would be better to have
another one.
That blinks 300 ft to the east.
On the west coast right at the
end of the uh Escondido Bridge.
Escondido Creek Bridge and also.
One
On the westbound, excuse me, on
the eastbound, west of the
crossing at the rise. There is
a, there is a diamond sign
there.
That says
Uh, trail crossing ahead, but
the drivers in those cars
cannot see that crosswalk until
7 seconds before they get to
that crosswalk.
The drivers on the going the
other direction.
Um, going westbound, it
s 4 to
5 seconds from the time they
get to the end of the bridge,
but they can
t really see that
blinking light because there
s
bushes that have overgrown and
block it. So that was our short
periods of time for somebody
who
s looking into the bright
sunshine, and that
s for
probably at least a couple of
months of the year. So I, by
putting the uh when the person
pushes a button to cross the
crosswalk. If those blink.
3 400 ft prior, I think the
speeding drivers would have a
better chance of being alerted
and slowing down.
So that
s, that
s involves that
one, the 2nd, 2nd, um.
Yeah, sorry, 3 minutes goes by
quickly. Oh, ok. Well, second
one, yeah, I
m sorry, yeah, you
have to, we, we have to limit
it to 3, so.
We, and we have the written,
written version you gave us.
Patty.
Wow.
Ok, um, mayor council road
safety, um, I
d like to thank
you, uh, the staff, the
mobility and traffic commission
and the council for all you
have done in the last 2 years
to improve road safety for all
modes of mobility.
Oh, here
s a clicker.
Uh, and I do believe you
re
willing to continue with these
efforts and more, some some in
our community are saying
efforts are not being made to
ensure safety and are
advocating for a complete
adaptation of this vision Zero
program citing success with
this program in Hoboken, New
Jersey, 9 years with no
fatalities, um, now I looked on
the Vision Zero website and it.
Looks like much of what they
re
doing, you
ve already done,
maybe not all of it, but a lot
of it.
Now Hoboken, New Jersey,
population 60,000 in a 1.2
square mile area.
Encinitas population 60,000, 20
square miles, um, so Hoboken,
let
s see where it is. It
s
like a stone
s throw across the
Hudson River from midtown
Manhattan and that dark blue
line there is like their uh
mobile transport like a subway
going over, um, according to
Brave ai 75% of residents in
Hoboken, New Jersey do not own
a car attributed to the.
City
s high walkability, public
transport, and parking
difficulties and 80% of the
commuters travel to work
without a personal vehicle.
So they
re not really like
Encinitas, but his vision zero
foolproof of zero fatalities
for 2 consecutive years or more
in all cities it is implemented
in.
According to Chat gbt, cities
with two consecutive years of
zero fatalities. Well, they
didn
t have any, u, other than
Hoboken, New Jersey City had
one. Alexandria 10 year Alameda
one San Francisco, San Jose,
Fremont, Los Angeles, New York,
none.
So, uh, thank you, City of
Encinitas for all you have done
and will continue to do for
improving our road safety for
all in Encinitas.
Martin, I have a couple of
things that have come up, right?
Yes you did.
Do you want to uh work with him
and we
ll go to the next one
and insert you in later so.
Next 3 speakers, Peter Tobias,
followed by Johnny Durbin and
then John Eldon.
Good afternoon. My name is
Peter Tobias. I
ve lived at 564
Arden Drive just east of here,
about 3 blocks since 1980.
I strongly believe that we do
not have enough traffic
enforcement.
Whether that means more
deputies or more electronic
enforcement, we need it.
I don
t know whether the two
new traffic enforcement, I
don
t know where the two new
traffic enforcement deputies
mentioned in today
s paperwork,
but I have not seen them or
virtually any deputies in my
part of Encinitas.
Let
s talk about speed limits.
As you know, the city lowered
many speed limits a year or two
ago, but without enforcement of
those limits, all they do is
teach people that there are no
consequences to speeding.
Where do people speed in my
neighborhood, they speed on
Requeza between Walk West Lake,
and the freeway. The speed
limit there is 20 miles an hour.
But even the kids on their
e-bikes break that record.
If I try to observe it.
The traffic behind me honks
their horns.
Earlier this afternoon, I was
driving west on La Costa
between El Camino Real and the
freeway. I was passed by a car
going just under 70 miles an
hour.
I know that because briefly I
matched his speed and checked
my speedometer.
Another place they speed is on
the Coast Highway, coming north
out of Solana Beach. The 30
minute mile per hour speed
limit there is routinely
flouted despite
Informational science that we
saw earlier.
Let
s talk about red lights.
Most of the problems I
ve seen
are at the Ramble crossings at
d and e Streets on 101 downtown
because I spent a lot of time
in that part of the city.
A few weeks ago, I was trying
to back out of the single
parking space in front of
Mauricio
s Italian restaurant.
A truck horn blared as I was
backing up, and when I looked
to see what was going on, the
truck sped through the Ramble
Crossing as the light turned
red.
At that same intersection of d
and 101, 2 weeks ago, I started
to cross going west just after
the red lights came on and a
truck came out of d Street
headed east and turned left,
right in front of me.
When I tried to signal the
driver to stop, he certainly
saw me well enough because he
gave me the finger.
We haven
t talked about stop
signs.
I haven
t talked about stop
signs. If you want to see how
people use stop signs in this
city. Go up here 100 yards to
the corner of Cornish and d
Street.
By the dog park across from the
library as I was walking down
here, I saw 4 cars go through
that stop sign without stopping.
Three of them slowed slightly,
and one of them simply sped
through.
Now I imagine that these things
happen all over town, and we
certainly need deputies and
hopefully more to enforce the
laws we need speed cameras, so.
Yeah, well, I, I, I, if I do it
for you, I have to do it.
Peter, Peter, I gotta cut you
off. I
m sorry. Yeah, we, we
get the message and.
We understand.
Good evening. Uh, my name is
Johnny Durbin. I
m an Encinitas
resident.
I
d like to talk to you today
about Vision Zero.
From coast to coast, more than
100 towns and cities have
embraced Vision Zero or aspects
of it.
Places like Columbus, Ohio and
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where
traffic injuries have dropped
sharply.
We see it in mid-size towns
like our neighbors in Vista.
To guard Oregon.
And Hoboken, New Jersey, which
we
ve already heard about.
With 9 consecutive years
without a single traffic
fatality.
For masses of massive hubs like
New York, Los Angeles, and
Austin to suburban communities
like Deerfield, Florida.
In Oak Park, Illinois.
This is an incredibly diverse
list of cities with the same
commitment.
Safe streets are not a
political issue, but a shared
American priority.
Leaders in communities across
the United States are treating
road design as a core principle
of their duty to ensure public
safety.
Vision Zero operates on the
core principle that human
nature or humans naturally make
mistakes.
And to account for this
physical to account for these
mistakes, physical road
environment should be designed
to absorb these mistakes
without them resulting in death
or severe injury.
Vision Zero does this by
leveraging physics, engineering,
and common sense.
It prioritizes roundabouts,
fixing crosswalks, and
utilizing smart technology to
manage speed and red light
running.
Towns across our country are
making meaning meaningful
changes to reduce and possibly
eliminate traffic deaths and
Encinitas scan too.
The future of American
infrastructure is one that
stops treating traffic deaths
as inevitable and starts
treating them as preventable.
Protecting our neighborhoods is
our collective responsibility.
Thank you.
John Eldon and following John
Eldon will be Ron Maddak.
And then Mike Doranski.
Hi, uh, John Eldon, just real
quick, I want to give credit
where credit is due. We
ve had
some resurfacing incis
Boulevard, uh, Lucadia
Boulevard and re-striping along
with opportunistic and the
results.
Are
near perfect.
So that
s been excellent as far
as Vision Zero, it sounds like
we
re already doing a lot of
that, as was mentioned earlier,
so I think that
s great. Uh,
the other one I wanna mention,
I think you
ll hear it from Ron
too, is that on Vulcan, for
instance, the crosswalk at
Orpheus is raised, and so we
have a slow as well as then you
also have the flashers and the
rest of it, and yeah, that
might be worth exploring. I
know we have to balance.
With what the fire department
needs. I get that.
Right, the first responders
have legitimate arguments as
far as traffic calming and road
design, but if we can work with
them, get them happy, and at
the same time slow down traffic
in general. I think we
re way
ahead.
And then finally there are
places I
m not 100% against
Ballards because, for instance,
at both ends of Sunset Drive,
we
ve squared the intersections
which are otherwise diverges
and merges, and I think that
s
been helpful on calming traffic
of those two. So anyway, thanks
a lot and keep up good work.
Um, Ron Matdoch Leenheim, um, I
wanna begin by thanking, uh, MR.
Nutter for a very good
presentation detailing
everything the city
s been
working on.
And although a lot has been
done, I think there is much
that needs to be done to
improve traffic safety in
Encinitas.
Um, for many reasons, among
them the force build out
throughout San Diego County.
It
s definitely an increase in
traffic throughout town and
with it an increase in
irresponsible driving.
There are a number of roads
that lend themselves to this
dangerous behavior, and among
them is El Camino del Norte.
And I know it well. I bicycle
it every week and I still
didn
t realize it was a speed
corridor.
A few days after the crash, the
Tuch Fin Faddock
s life, my son
and I went to the trail
crossing and tape measured with
a 50 ft tape measure what
appears to be the physical
evidence.
And um,
We did not have, um, thank you
for that, uh, admittedly we did
not have access to the vehicle
in order to be able to verify
that the fresh black skid marks
came from the Nissan z and we
didn
t have the electronic data
recorder, the sheriff
s
investigation committee team
does.
And um if one just looks at the
skid marks alone, 71 ft. It
s
clear this was the conditions
that this driver saw as he went
up the road 100 yards from that
crossing.
Very clear that he was well in
excess of what was a safe speed,
which was less, I
m sure, than
the 35 miles an hour that was
posted.
Unfortunately, there
s a subset
of drivers that are
incorrigible and dangerous to
all of us, and we can
t stop
them alone by trying to stop
their behavior. We need to
actually physically slow those
vehicles, and I think the
committee should be formed to
use traffic devices that slow
vehicles on the roads that are
found to be the prime roads and
begin with us, we can look at
the whole city, but we can run
the most dangerous the devices
used to be such as.
Speed cushions raised
crosswalks, raised
intersections, speed tables,
rumble strips, roundabouts, as
well as all other manner of
devices. We have people here
that are perfectly capable of
doing that, and I suggest to
the committee in my public
comment, and I
m gonna include
a close first responders, that
would be Chief Gordon and the
Captain Watts.
Um,
The second thing is
unfortunately we have some
infrastructure that
s been put
in place, which is also
dangerous. It
s cost 2 lives of
cyclists unnecessarily, uh,
which is a scandal. It
s also
caused multiple injuries, um,
especially on the South Beach
area, uh, we have a committee
now formed on the mtsc with
John Eldon and myself and we
re
looking forward to cooperation
and support from the city
council, uh, in a subcommittee
to evaluate, uh, with the
purpose of removing.
Dangerous and unnecessary bull.
Thank you.
Right, thanks for that, um.
I
d like to start by thanking
the council for hosting this.
It
s great to see the, um, the
turnout. Clearly a lot of
people are caring about street
safety, which is awesome.
Um, and to put it on a special
meeting. I appreciate it. You
guys spent a lot of time
working and coming and staying
up late and um I appreciate it.
Also, thank you for the staff
for the report and all the hard
work. I think we can all agree
that um staff has been
fantastic.
And it requires us to hold some
of this nuance in our minds as
we think through the current
situation because we can have
an amazing staff, a strong
council, a wonderful sheriff,
be working on a really
important projects, spending
tons of money doing it. It
s
still not getting the result
that we want.
We
ve had 17 fatalities since
2016 for pedestrians and
cyclists.
That
s a lot.
So it
s gonna take some
leadership to admit that even
though we
re working hard, that
there
s a gap between where we
are now and where we want to be.
And we need to figure out how
to bridge that gap.
Our community Safe Streets
Enitas came together after
Emery
s death last year. It
really hit Parkdale Lane hard.
We watched John and Bridget go
through what they
ve had to go
through, and we
ve just seen so
much pain across the community.
Our advocacy has always been
about
Stopping fatalities on the
streets, and it continues to be.
The Hoboken cases study is
actually just about process.
It
s not about what they did.
This goes into the 5th e
evaluation, I guess is gonna be
my request.
How do we draw a direct line
from the risks that are causing
the fatalities to the projects
that we
re spending money on
and make sure that we
re
getting the results that we
need. We
ve already had
multiple people come up here
and talk about what happened on
El Camino del Norte.
The community needs a place
after fatality to show up and
speak about what they
re
feeling, what they
ve seen,
share ideas, and we need to
address it. There
s been 6
fatalities since Brodie got,
got hit.
She
s just been 3 years.
I haven
t seen a single one of
those locations reviewed
publicly.
We might be doing some of this
already and that
s the request
for more transparency around
the 5th e. If we
re doing some
of this, let
s please make it
public. I think there
s a home
for it at mtsfc maybe somewhere
else.
Um
I don
t care if we call it
Vision Zero.
I don
t care if we take
inspiration from Hoboken.
Or we just don
t want to see
any more kids get run over and
crosswalks.
So the request is that we have
some kind of fatality review.
Let the community come together.
Let
s get our crack stuff
working on it. I think we can
do this, you guys. Thank you.
Next 3 speakers Laura Russell,
followed by Travis Newhouse,
and then Chris Giles.
Hi, I
m Laura Russell, and I
want to thank the previous
speakers, uh, especially Ron
Medd, um, whos always been a,
if you could address us.
Yeah, thank you, helps.
That way we can hear you but
that was a somewhat heroic
testimony, and I want to thank
him for it. Um, I
m Laura
Russell. I live at the
intersection of Windmill Ranch
Road and El Camino del Norte.
And I think it bears repeating
what we
re actually talking
about today and that is
pedestrian fatalities. 6 weeks
ago, on JULY 10th.
I was sitting in my family room.
And with apologies to any
family or friends of the
deceased who MAY be here. I
heard a thud.
I heard a screech of tires.
I heard voices yelling.
By the time I got my shoes on
and myself down to right where
the accident took place, a 17
year old girl had been
pronounced dead in one of the
enhanced crosswalks that people
in our area take as maybe as a
suggestion. They never stopped
there.
So,
I think one of my main concerns
is despite some.
Modest tributes that friends
and family have left for that
teenage girl at the site of the
accident, there is no other
acknowledgement that that
teenage girl died there.
Drivers can drive by with no
knowledge that someone just
died there.
So my request is that.
To dovetail on the previous
speaker, we need more public
acknowledgement of these
fatalities. Someone lost their
beautiful teenage daughter. And
I think the drivers who are
using our corridor to um
commute from Escondido to the
coast and back every day at
high speeds. I need to borrow
Bruce
s speed gun if I can. I
think the
Speed limit there is 35. It
s
people are going 40, 50, 60. I
stopped at the sheriff
s office
just before the meeting tonight.
They
re always so nice and
helpful, but they wanted to
know, well, when do you want us
to conduct a speed trap there
because that
s one of my
solutions. And I said, uh,
practically 24/7, uh, we hear
as we
re sleeping at night, we
hear people racing during
commute hours, people are
racing.
Um
And frankly, I
m not picky.
I
ll take stop signs. I
ll take
speed bumps, whatever you
re
willing to give us. We need
physical impediments to
speeders on that road, and I do
thank you for all of your work
on that issue.
Hello, I
m Travis Newhouse, uh,
resident of District 2 and
member of Ensigns Bike Walk. I
just wanna start, uh, say thank
you to City council and staff
for the new bike rides at
Swami
s, uh, the upgrade from
the old wave style rack has
more capacity and much more
room for bikes with surf racks.
So thank you. Um, now on the
topic of safe streets. Uh, I
moved to Encinitas in 2011
because I found a neighborhood
where my kids could walk and
bike to school.
And back then, few bikes were
on the road. Adults or kids.
Parents that I knew at school
told me they didn
t feel safe
letting their kids ride, and
that
s why I got involved with
Encious Bike Walk.
This morning, I rode past
Oceannolano Crest on the way to
the barber. I saw dozens of
families on cargo bikes, kids
riding their own bikes, and
even more students walking.
When my own kids were young, I
only saw those numbers when we
organized a bike and walk to
school day. I was very happy to
see the improvement.
And that tells you something.
Demand for safe streets isn
t
hypothetical. It
s already here
every morning.
And I appreciate what I
ve seen
in the city do in the 15 years
that I
ve lived here, but I
think we can do more.
When I hear people talking
about e-bikes as a problem, I
cringe.
I see it as an opportunity.
Every person on a bike or
e-bike is one less car on our
streets.
We should be encouraging that
transportation choice by
providing safe streets that
give people of all ages the
freedom to get around.
While cutting traffic for
everyone.
Council members o
Hara and
Schaeffer, uh, you have talked
about routing bikes and
pedestrians onto calmer, safer
streets. I love that idea. And
I
m asking the city to build a
comprehensive calm street
network connecting our
neighborhoods to the places we
want to go.
So that we can get there safely.
Lowering the speed limits is a
good first step that we
ve
tried, but I still see drivers
speeding on streets in my
neighborhood like Gardena,
Melba, and Nardo Road.
Signs alone are not enough.
We need physical infrastructure.
We need streets to be built to
keep speeds low.
There are great examples in
Cardiff on Rubenstein Avenue
and Summit Avenue, where they
have chicanes that slow down
the speed of cars.
More of that is necessary in
Encinitas.
Safer streets are an
opportunity.
To give people transportation
choices.
Prevent deaths and injuries.
And to make every neighborhood
in Encinitas better. Thank you.
Hello, my name
s Chris Giles,
uh, district 2 and a member of
Encinitas Bike Walk. Uh, I want
to start off thanking all of
you and city staff for all the
work that
s been done because
there has been a lot of stuff
done.
Um, during the oral
communications at the last
mobility traffic Safety
commission meeting, a woman who
lives in the neighborhood west
of the 5 near Roquesa expressed
her concern that increased
traffic on Encs Boulevard was
leading to more, more motorists
using Riqueza and surrounding
neighborhood streets as a cut
through to cross the freeway.
She
s visibly frustrated by the
number of motorists and how
fast they
re driving. These
neighborhoods are where people
live. Children play, and people
walk their dogs, and these are
quiet city streets that
should not be used, uh, as
expressways for motorists
convenience. Riqueza is one of
the two routes where people
walking or biking can cross the
freeway without conflicting
with motorists entering or
exiting the 5. It is a key
route for kids riding their
bikes between several schools
downtown in the uh surrounding
neighborhoods. Unfortunately I
commonly see motorists driving
35 to 40 miles an hour across
the narrow freeway bridge where
kids share the lane. Crest.
And Melva are uh primary
connection for kids traveling
between East Encinitas and
schools, the park and the
community center, yet both of
these streets force kids on
bikes to share the same road
with motorists who often drive
above the speed limit.
This next part might sound like
it was rehearsed because it
s.
Kind of the same thing that
Travis just said, um, council
member Schaeffer, you have on
numerous occasions said that.
A solution to our motorists,
cyclist conflicts is for
cyclists to avoid arterial
streets and residential streets,
honestly, I agree with you. I
personally ride my bike and for
utility and transportation all
over Encinitas on a daily basis.
I primarily ride on residential
streets because it
s safer,
quieter and simply more
enjoyable to ride, but when
we
re trying to encourage
cyclists of all ages and
abilities to ride on
residential.
Streets, it doesn
t just mean
pushing them onto side streets
and then problem solved. Mixing
a young child or an older
cyclist riding at 12 miles an
hour with an impatient motorist
who
s driving 30 miles an hour
trying to get across town
quickly means more conflict and
more collisions for your idea
to be successful, and I do
believe that it can be. Those
residential streets need to be
designated as slow streets.
This means 20 mile an hour
speed limits.
Actual infrastructure that
physically slows motorist
traffic, such as speed cushions,
increased enforcement, and
possibly speed cameras. Let
s
build a network of slow streets
all over Encinitas that give
riding bikes or walking, the
freedom to move around town
safely and let
s start with the
residential corridor from Crest
to the east to the library in
downtown to the west. Thank you.
Next 3 speakers, Judy Burlfein,
followed by Connie Leslie, and
then Dennis Caden.
Hi, I
m Judy Burlfin, and I
m
also a member of Antonina
s
Bike Walk.
So thank you to the staff for
putting together a great
presentation, which I
m
guessing was maybe unfairly
short notice.
The two previous speakers
discussed a neighborhood
network, something that we can
all agree on.
But we must recognize that no
matter how great that
neighborhood network is one
must cross a major street to
get anywhere in this city.
I can
t go to Paullecky school
without crossing Encinitas
Boulevard and Vulcan.
Unless I
m willing to go way
out of my way.
I can
t go to my weight
trainer
s house in Spyglass
without crossing El Camino Real.
And when I was at Fox Pointe
Farms and I
d driven there and
drove parked on the other side
of Lucadia Boulevard.
There were 3 cars ready to hit
me as I crossed Lucadia
Boulevard as they turn right or
turned left.
So intersections are major
hazards. They
re one of the
four focus areas of the Safe
Streets group. They
re high on
the list of the comprehensive
safety action plan, and they
are high on the list of
Encinitas bike Walk, so how can
we improve the safety of our
intersections.
Many of the measures we have
installed around the city can
help.
Refuge islands, bulb outs, LPIs,
pedestrian scrambles, speed
radar signs, bicycle signals,
and quick build roundabouts.
But before we take any action,
we need a method of evaluating
the measures we
ve installed,
and I learned today about some
of the evaluations you
ve done
already. I
d love to know if
there are more that we don
t
know about.
The real question is how do
speeds go down if we post lower
speed limits, so you said 2.2
miles. I think if we change
street design, we can bring
them down to what we
re
actually posting.
Do people stop at RRFBs and
what are the actual speeds on
roads with RFBs, not just the
posted speeds.
Do LPIs provide enough
protection, or do we need
pedestrian scrambles or no
turns when the walk button is
activated because the 3 seconds
that I get with the lpi gets me
right in the middle of the
intersection where they can hit
me from all directions.
Do flashing yellow light
signals help or only confuse
drivers.
There
s a lot of work to be
done. We have a plan with the
csap. We have the modal
alternatives project. I hope we
can be a little more methodical
and less arbitrary in our
approach. And lastly, I request
the next traffic engineer that
we hire, have it be someone who.
Knows about active
transportation and rides a bike.
Thank you.
I
m Connie Leslie and I live at
1892 Forestdale Drive, and I
m
here in reference to the
speeding cars on South Willow
Spring Road from Cyril Avenue
down to Encinitas Boulevard. I
do want to commend the
sheriff
s office. They did an
enormous effort to track
speeding cars last spring, and
there were a lot of people who
were very unhappy about the
tickets that they received. I
even have a sticker on my
Be on my speed dial that tells
me reminds me to drop down to
20 miles an hour, but people
forget.
And, um,
And I did speak with two of the
officers who were on the corner
of Orwell Avenue and Willow
Spring where they had set up
their stops, and I asked them,
why were they set up on Orwell,
because that was a flat surface
and cars coming in could
actually see the police
officers on the corner of the
road, and I said, the real
problem is over on Fairleigh
Avenue and down on Valleydale
Drive, where the road curves
and cars are speeding up, and
cars are.
Speeding going down, and the
officer said it was too
dangerous to set up a stop
there, so I think that speaks
for itself, um, so I
m here,
and, and I know the problem is
just going to get a lot worse
once the Goodson project goes
online, so, and that MAY be as
many as 300 more cars. So, uh,
I would like to see, and I know
that the emergency department
does not want speed tables or
speed bumps.
Uh,
They make over 200.
Uh drive-throughs every year
through that road, uh, many of
them come to my community
because we
re an elderly
community, so I don
t want them
to stop coming, but um, there
are other ways to deal with
this, and I would even consider
stop signs at Forestdale and at
Valleydale, I
d consider, uh,
speed tables, just anything
temporary for a while, and then
there
s just not enough signage,
they, there
s a sign saying 20
miles an hour when you
Turn on from Encinitas
Boulevard. And then there
s
another sign very close to 0,
but once you see that sign, you
forget, or maybe you don
t even
see it, and they just plow
right through, so, uh, I would
also like to see something with
a very large 20 mile an hour
painted on the hillside, coming
up that hill and going down
that hill, so people understand
that. So, thank you.
Good evening.
City council members. My name
is Dennis Caden in District one.
I want to, uh, take the time to
praise Encinitas here. I did
some comparisons on Hoboken, uh,
we already heard it
s a 1.3
square miles we
re 19.9 square
miles. Uh, Hoboken is called
the mile square City, um, they
have 28,000 units housing units
we have basically 24,000 of the
28,000. I found it interesting
they have less than 4.
400 single family.
Detached homes, so we have.
Just the opposite and we got
lots of neighborhoods with
people driving through and
stuff and that
s what makes it
such a special place, um, the
population per square mile is
45,000.
It
s the dense, it
s the most
densely, it
s the 4 densely
populated city in America where
3100 square miles, uh, persons
per household 2.02 versus r
2.54 and I noticed they have
persons over 65, we have almost
20% of our population loves
living here so much that they
don
t need to get out of a big
city and the number of streets.
Streets is 48 versus our 956.
That
s a lot of streets to try
to prevent, um, accidents and
things and I do believe most of
the accidents that we
ve had
right now is egregious as they
are, they were driver neglect
and, and that makes it even
worse.
We
re doing plenty like Vision
Zero here and I
m proud of what
the council has done. We have
something in Encinitas Hoboken
will never have.
On our circulation element and
John Eldon and I worked on it
when we first incorporated. We
have trails.
We have trails that have never
been prioritized on our
circulation element every time
we have a high density housing
element that there
s a trail to
go through. The trail gets
ignored.
And I think it
s time maybe we
could utilize the trails to get
bicycles off the main arterials
because they
re all gonna go to
the same place. Everybody wants
to get to the beach, so could
we please look into that.
Thank you very much. I love our
trails. I love our city. Thank
you.
Next 3 speakers, Karen Kan,
followed by Fabian Gannell, and
then Laura Grimmer.
Hi, I
m Karen Caden. I
m in
district one.
I
m the better half of Dennis I
wanna thank you guys for the
paving Lucchetti Boulevard. I
m
on there at least 6 times a day.
I also, um, and help improve
the uh Encinitas safe walk to
Capri for um.
From uh uh Urania uh and
throughout Carter Street, an
area to protect our children
from windy roads, and it has
been working.
And I know you guys are gonna
be working on that too in your
program. I wanna thank you,
council for time, having a
special meeting today.
I also thank the sheriff
s
department. I was thinking
about what other people were
saying regards to um problems
in their neighborhood and other
places they
ve seen.
I think, you know, more
notification of traffic risk,
you know, to the sheriff
s
department or maybe they can
have another department to uh
pick up what problems are in
the city of Encinitas that can
refer to the tra the uh
sheriffs. I wanna share. I was
standing at a stop sign near
Capri School and a lot of
people going through the step
sign, and then one day a
sheriff showed up and stood
next to me, and every time they
saw the sheriff, they slammed
on.
The brakes, so I was thinking
about maybe having a cardboard
sheriff and staying there with
it. Ok, so, um.
As, as a community we should
show support.
Our council and city staff on
safe choices. I res I totally
respect the city
s framework of
the five e
s engineering, my My
favorite is education,
enforcement.
Engagement and evaluation
informed the sheriffs were, you
know, better results. I wanna
thanks for adding safer
improvements for our school
zones, more crossing guards,
safe rail crossings, improved
visibility for pedestrian
crossing and lowering speed
limits near schools. I want to
thank you so kindly for all
your work.
Last year at this time, Council
member Lyons proposed a
resolution.
The operative part was so
simple.
That I can read it out.
Quote, and it was a resolved
that the city of Encinitas
acknowledges long-standing
community support for traffic
calming, ratifies continued
city support for traffic
calming in Encinitas and will
continue to strive to improve
and support traffic calming and
traffic calming policies in
Encinitas.
She moved to approve.
And it didn
t even get a vote.
Not one of the rest of you
would second the motion.
One of you was just vehemently
opposed. You chose to interpret
this general pro-calming
language as an attack on one or
more of your pet projects. One
of you tried to have it both
ways. You said you wouldn
t
oppose the motion. You didn
t
support it either.
One of you had nothing to say
on the issue at all. Pretty
remarkable considering a child
had just died.
One of you at least engaged
constructively with the problem.
Council member Schaeffer
proposed a citywide traffic
study to identify specific
problems.
He tried to move agendaizing it
for a future meeting. The chair
asked that he hold the motion,
but then the council never got
back to it after the original
motion failed.
I looked for any other mention
of COUNCILMAN Schaeffer
s ideas
at Futures meeting, and I found
a statement a few weeks later
that he was discussing it with
staff, but nothing else. No
such study is listed in
tonight
s staff report.
Everyone talks about safety,
especially after a tragedy, but
actions matter more than words.
When you put safety projects
with planned road diets on your
list of accomplishments, but
the record shows you took out
the road diets when you
approved them.
Your actions don
t match your
words.
When there
s a good idea for a
traffic study, but it can
t
even get agenda.
Your actions don
t match your
words. And when you task the
mtsc with reporting on ways to
eliminate or minimize traffic
deaths, unquote. And the mtsc
year-end report includes no
specific action under that work
item, and then they take it out
of the next year
s.
Work items. Your actions aren
t
matching your words.
It
s past time for real action
to slow traffic and actually
improve safety. We
re spending
$15 million a year or $15
million over the past 3 years
to repave roads. Great. Repaved
roads do not actually slow
traffic. If anything to the
contrary.
How about things that actually
slow traffic and actually
improve safety. I hope we hear
something about that tonight.
Thank you.
Good evening, Mayor Ehler, City
Council.
My name is Laura Grimmer. I
m a
founding member of Safe Streets
Encinitas, uh, first, a big
thank you to the sheriff
s
department, your presence in
our community is impactful and
based on the data you
ve shared,
it appears that things are
moving in the right direction.
We recognize the enormous
responsibility you
re carrying
right now.
And we
re encouraged that the
council will be discussing red
light cameras on SEPTEMBER 9th.
Additional tools can provide
much-needed support and
importantly, help keep our
deputies safer.
In the meantime, thank you for
continuing this difficult work.
And another big thank you to
staff. Your report was
informative, and we appreciate
the transparency in both the
process and execution.
We would love to ask to see
more regularly more regular
reports to continue to increase
transparency and accountability.
We hear what you
re saying and
we appreciate the progress that
is being made.
And we ask that you all hear us
too.
We know the city has projects
underway, but we need to ask an
important question.
Are these projects addressing
the places and conditions where
fatalities are occurring.
Repaving a road is important
maintenance, but by itself is
not a safety strategy.
If we have an opportunity to
improve safety as part of a
project, we should take it.
Every project that moves
forward without a meaningful
safety review.
Maybe a missed opportunity to
prevent the next serious crash
or the next fatality.
We all know the number of
vehicles on our roads is
continuing to grow rapidly.
We need to get ahead of that
growth. We need to identify
risks.
And act on them before another
family experiences the
unimaginable loss of a loved
one.
Or before another child is
involved in a life changing
crash.
We
ve heard calls to return
teaching kids to stop, look and
listen.
Well,
I ask you, let
s stop blaming
the kids. Let
s look at the
infrastructure, look at the
intersections, look at the
conditions that MAY be
contributing to these crashes.
And most importantly, and I
thank you for tonight, Listen
to the people who live here and
use these roads every day.
We don
t have to agree on
everything, but we do need to
respect one another and work
together to do what is right
for our city.
The solutions we develop need
to be effective across all
viewpoints. They need to be
maintained across changes in
city leadership, and ultimately
needs to make, make our streets
safer for everyone. Um, I
m
running out of time, so I will
just say, um, as we
ve heard,
our kids are being struck and
killed in crosswalks.
This is ucceptable. We
re
asking, can the city
temporarily shift some
priorities and resources
towards the areas where the
greatest safety concerns exist.
Thank you.
Final Four speakers, Ellen Burr,
followed by Dave Dean, then
Sheila Cameron, and then
Caitlin Despain.
That was about the same
distance as a crosswalk that I
just walked down here.
I don
t use a cane yet or a
walker yet, but that
s pretty
fast.
And I just wanna make sure that
we are double checking that.
I don
t know whether it
s
pedestrian leading intervals or
leading pedestrian intervals
should be easy to do to make
sure that they are as long as
possible because.
People, 40% of our city
probably is under the 5 or
under or over the age of 60
plus a number who are
handicapped, not everybody
rides a bike, Judy, I wish I
could.
Uh, so I think we need to focus
more on pedestrians.
And make sure that the
crosswalks and the bike lanes
are safe, so that means if it
s
gonna be paved next week, don
t
do it now, but there shouldn
t
be any cracks, any divots, any
potholes, anything that a bike
tire is gonna hit or an old
person or a young person is
gonna stumble over just we
could do some really easy
things I think that might make
a difference.
And I don
t want to be
crucified again for stop look
and listen, but I do think we
need to emphasize.
Awareness on every level and uh
i can write a check for.
Something to be produced if you
want me to.
Um,
Yeah, that
s it thanks.
Thank you.
Council, Mayor, staff, good
evening, Dave Dean. First, I
d
like to start off by thanking
the staff last Wednesday when I
spoke at City council about a
dangerous sign on b and 3rd.
By 9 o
clock the next morning,
it was removed in the crosswalk
was safe, so thank you for
listening. Thank you for
responding.
Next thing I
d like to suggest
is a safety sign, um, down on
Coast Highway, similar to one
they have in Del Mar, saying
bicycle enforcement zone.
In the last two days I
ve
watched over 10 bicyclists
going down Coast Highway
running red lights.
Exceptionally dangerous. 2 days
in a row, multiple red lights
run.
Final suggestion.
Let
s up our game and go with
making Encinitas the safest
city in America.
Speed kills, lower the speed
limit. I
m in favor of a
maximum speed limit of 25 miles
an hour in the entire city.
If it takes 10 minutes longer
to get across the city and
saves a life, who
s 10 minutes
is more important than saving a
life.
Let
s make it safe. Let
s lower
the speed limits. Thank you.
Good evening, Mayor and council,
Sheila Cameron.
A few years years ago, a
national park at a national
park, 3 young people died after
having been swept over a
waterfall.
Although plenty of signs were
already posted nearby. Don
t go
near the water, etc. They went
in anyway.
When the ranger was interviewed
by a concerned citizens, his
reply.
One thing I
ve learned after
over 30 years here in the park
is that you can
t protect
people from themselves.
We can believe and demand.
The other fixed things for us.
The other in this case being
our city government, however,
maybe what we should be doing
is standing in front of the
mirror and asking ourselves
some questions.
Do we sometimes tend to drive
too fast, drive 10 to 20 miles
or more over the speed limit.
Have you pulled out from a
right-hand turn when we see
cars coming, but pull out
anyway.
Do we approach a yellow traffic
light and instead of slowing to
a stop, gun the gas and push
right through. Just saw that
two days ago.
Even when the light is red
This city government cannot
protect us from ourselves. It
is not their responsibility. We
are humans and individuals.
We
ve been given an abundance
of rules and physical
considerations to protect our
health and safety and the
safety of others when we
re
driving. What happens when we
get into these 2000 or 3000
pound automobiles are cocoons.
Their killing machines, while
in our cars, we have a sense of
entitlement only for ourselves.
Where and how did we learn to
drive? Was something missing in
our training, a moral compass
perhaps. Do we pass on bad
habits and indifference for
safety and rules of the road to
our children, so now we
re our
children. Our children are on
motorbikes and e-bikes, a
convenience for parents and
other concern and fearful
distraction from motorists
children are young, too
precious, too uninformed.
Uh, are the stats for accidents,
a generational phenomenon. They
are.
And I
ve put here, I
ve had 3
accidents the last 6 years, not
my fault, 1825, 26 year olds,
and the last guy said to me,
Well, I saw you coming, but I
pulled out because I thought I
had more time, so I
m asking
you time the culprit? Are we
too much in a hurry, too
stressed, running late, trying
to do too much. If we think and
slow down, can we save us from
ourselves. That
s a start.
Thank you.
Good evening. Uh, my name is
Caitlin De Spain. I am a local
parent to an elementary and
middle school student, and we
bought a home here 12 years ago,
strictly in the neighborhood
that we knew we could walk our
kids to, and I still enjoy
doing that every day.
Um,
One of the things that concerns
me and why I
ve gotten the
courage to speak here tonight
is that I
m really concerned
about the speed of our drivers
in the community throughout. I
travel up and down El Camino
Real, multiple times a day,
driving my kids around to their
activities. And if I
m driving,
the posted 30, 35 mile per hour
speed limit. Cars are whizzing
around me, frustrated at me
that I
m going so slow.
So
I don
t think that
Posting a lower speed limit.
Will change drivers
behavior.
I think we need to hear more as
a community, what the plans are
to
Do more than that.
I do think that.
We need to know more about how
you are going to save our
children
s lives and make the
city safe for them.
And I need to know, how can we
make not losing another life a
top priority here.
Thank you for your time.
That concludes speakers on this
item.
ok, we
ve got, uh, 30 minutes
left, so I just keep that in
mind. We got 5 of us to get in
here and the discussion. I, I,
uh, punched in first, um.
I actually heard a lot of new
ideas, good ideas, maybe not
new ideas, but, uh, heard them
again, I guess is the best way
to put it, uh.
Is there one thing I always
like to ask the uh rhetorical
question. Is there one thing we
can do that can perfectly fix
all the roads? No, it, it
s
doing a lot of things is what
we have to do, and I think
that
s what we have been doing,
um, do roadway modifications
make roads perfectly safe.
Unfortunately, no. It all comes
back to driver behavior as a
component here.
Roadway construction is
important or, or, uh, design is
important, but we ultimately
have to change all of our
driver behaviors, ours, we all
have to drive at the speed
limit or under. I find myself
driving 5 miles under now.
And I
m very conscious about it
and I hope more people will do
that and we actually have seen
the data and I, I won
t go
recap that, so.
Um, if you could bring up the
slide about how much money
we
ve spent on
On enforcement versus roadway.
Because if you go look at some
of the, the bikeway
improvements we
ve done $4
million a mile, roughly.
That
s what it
s costing. Yeah,
look at the left there.
By the way, I went back and
checked before we put it in the
budget. I don
t know, what, 2
years ago, uh, to add the two
deputies, I went back and
looked 15 years, we had not
added a single traffic deputy.
15 years and it MAY have gone
back further. I just, I think I
ran out of data.
So we were flat. And so we
added the two.
I quite frankly, out of what
s
been happening and still not
seeing enough reduction in
speed even though we
ve seen
some. I
m gonna propose in the
next budget that we add 2 more.
And, and I think we need to,
and I think we need to all
consider that and we MAY even
do that before the next budget
and do it in mid-year. So, uh,
but it
s it
s important, you
know, it takes, it takes a
while to get them on board, but
you can see the cost. It, it
s,
uh, the first year is just
under a million, that
s because
you gotta get a car for each
one, each one of them. And then
it, it goes down to about
700,000 a year ongoing for 2,
and why 2 that covers, uh, both
shifts, right?
Um, quick question for, uh,
Captain Watts, how many traffic
deputies do we have as a whole?
What, what is adding to is what
kind of percentage increase in
our enforcement, so currently,
um, we staff 4 motors, so 4 on
the motorcycles, and then after
adding those two dui cars,
which also do enforcement,
speed enforcement, and other
enforcement. Um, we are at 7
cars, so it
s a significant
increase and 2 more would be a
very significant. So, so that,
that.
That
s one proposal. I just
wanna make sure we
re, we
re
looking at how much money we
have spent on roadway safety
versus what we
re spending on
additional traffic deputies,
school crossing guards, I think
it was a really good use of
money too. And, and bicycle
safety.
They, they all pale in
comparison to what we spent on
infrastructure, but
infrastructure will protect
that half mile, that quarter
mile, that mile, whatever we do.
But even then we
ve had
accidents.
At Cardiff, uh, Cardiff, uh,
the, uh, cycle trail, the uh
what do you call it, bike trail.
Yeah, the, the, uh.
We
ve had accidents, deaths
there. We had another death on,
on, on 2020 on Lucadia
Boulevard at an improved
separated bike lane. They
re
not a panacea for perfect
safety. It
s all gonna come
down to driver behavior
ultimately. So we really need
to change that and I, every
time, every opportunity I have,
I call on everyone, slow down,
even if you
re going slightly
slower, and I, yes, I have
people behind me honking too,
and I, and, but
You know, we gotta do it.
So that that
s one point, um.
Second item that I would
propose to this council is I
wanna go back through the
history first.
Um, we adopted this council,
not this council, but a council
adopted Vision Zero back in
2019 or it was, it was proposed.
It had, we adopted it in 2021.
So we do have a vision zero
plan. It is there. Out of that
came the local roadway safety
plan, which was written in
FEBRUARY of 2022, and if you
haven
t read it, uh, I would
recommend it. It
s very good.
It
s very analytical. It
s a
day.
Data-driven document, and then
out of that came the uh the um.
What
s that now? Oh, the, uh,
um.
What is it? Csap. I can never
remember the uh, um.
What
s the, what
s the, uh,
comprehensive safety action
action plan, which is actually
less if you, you read it, it
s
actually less uh quantitative
and, and a little less data
analytics. It
s a little more
policy driven.
What I would propose is that we
bring that back in the not too
distant future and regenize it
because I think the only, only
person that was on council at
the time was, uh, uh, council
member lines. The rest of us
are, are new after this. And so
I
d like to have us regenize
and review those two, similar
to what we did in the case of
flooding when we brought back
the q3 report a couple of years
ago. It
s a chance for this
council to buy in and make
modifications to that very same
plan and then per potential.
Essentially direct updating it,
which I think is one of the,
one of the reoccurring themes I
hear is we want better data,
more appropriate data. Quite
frankly, I, I look at that and
both the csap and the lr lrsp
both basically look at
What problems or where most of
the crashes and fatalities and,
and serious injuries are coming
from. Guess what? They they
re
coming from speeding,
distracted driving, running
stop signs, running stoplights,
and drunken driving. That
s in
both of those reports if you go
back and read them tonight.
And and so I think we
ve done a
lot of the work. We just need
to maybe familiarize not only
ourselves but probably the
public. So, I, I would propose
that, uh, we agendize that at a
future meeting, hopefully
OCTOBER, maybe, you know, it
depends on where it
ll fit in,
but sooner better.
Uh,
And, and then, I, I think I
will, uh,
Yield at that point because, uh.
We had 11 last point.
Um, and I
m going to quote
Fabian Gunnell, because you
said actions matter more than
words. That is so true.
Uh, when When I went back and I
looked at the emergency
declaration and, you know, we
could declare an emergency.
What happened the last time I
was on the council when we
declared an emergency, and
quite frankly, I didn
t know
what it, it had expired. But I
learned that later.
All the response was, what
additional powers does the
council get from declaring an
emergency, and it
s really
almost none. What, what that
council did back then with me
on it, is we put up the uh the
flashing road signs, right,
with the messaging signs. We
printed a whole bunch of, of.
Science, uh, yard signs that
went out.
But everything else, all the,
the actions as, as Fabian would
call it, those all came out of
council action that
s long term
and that we
ve been working on
and building on, building on
the local road safety plan,
building on the csap building
on all the work that staff
s
been doing, building on the
work that that the sheriff
s
captain has done to increase
enforcement and change driver
behavior. So, um,
I don
t, I don
t know that
words and declarations are the
most important thing here
tonight, I think, as Fabian
said, actions.
Actions very particular actions.
Let
s, let
s continue building
better roads, safer roads where
appropriate.
Uh, let Let
s continue the
enforcement. Let
s add to the
enforcement and there were some
great ideas, the cutout of the
sheriff is kind of similar to
having the car, uh, an unmanned
car parked, uh, there too. And,
and by the way, I
ve seen that
and watched that and people jam
on their brakes at the stop
sign when they come up to a
corner and see a police car. So
I don
t know if we buy a bunch
of used cars, paint them black
and white, and put them out
there. But their ideas like
that, but
My bottom line here.
What we
re doing is not one
action, it
s a complete breadth
of actions. There are many, and
I think you heard tonight that
that
s what we
ve been doing.
We will continue to do, uh, as
the council changes over this
next year, I hope future
councils will continue that.
So with that, I
ll yield.
COUNCILMAN Schaffer.
Thank you, Mayor. Um.
Uh, I do believe that this is
obviously a very important to
all of, of Encinitas and when
we look at the different models,
and I
m just gonna go through
the list I
ve written kind of
in order. The RRFBs, I think
that they
re great. I think
that they need, uh, a lead time
for the driver, cause it
s a,
it
s, an, it
s an, a push and
activated immediately when you
activate it, uh, I think
there
s a false confidence that
sometimes where people feel
like they can walk like a
normal stoplight where they
re
all the cars have the yellow,
they have time to slow down,
and then a red to come to that
stop, um.
On a number of occasions I
ve
seen myself in Cardiff and also
in Lucadia. People push the
button and walk, and it
s a
false confidence and I, I don
t
want to keep creating a false
confidence. I want stuff that
actually works, so if there
s a
way to do that, I know that
I
ve talked about this before,
Ensenada in, in a, a country
that supposedly is, is lesser
than us, has a countdown on
their yellow lights, their,
their, uh, the yellow on the
light signal. I
m not sure
that
s something that we could
look into, but having a the one
time that you can know that the
timing of the light is when the
crosswalk is.
Counting down and you see the
light go yellow, you know.
How much more time there is,
and it gives you that that
confidence and now the driver
from a distance, especially
with the speeds of the vehicles.
The distance you can be from a
light, uh, let
s say South El
El Camino Real, uh, down there
by the college. You could be
going at the 55 miles an hour
and that light changes, you
know, whatever the, the timing
is, so you, you have cars
driving at a, a greater speed
at different times.
Uh, I think, um, Fabian brought
up, you know, the actions, I
would say the, the slow is
important. I think that
separate is better.
So I think that, you know, Judy
Berlein brought up the idea of
the intersections that you do
have to cross the major
thoroughfares, that would be a
help.
For us to have these separate
um mobility locations where
that are safer streets, but
when we do have the points of
crossing, uh, that are most
used that we can hammer those
locations for enforcement. I
think that
s a comprehensive
approach to start separating as
much as possible bikes and um
and cars. There are gonna be
locations where they are gonna,
you know, meet up, but in those
locations, we, we hammer down
on, uh, again, Melba, I
m sorry,
uh, Blo and Nia Boulevard. It
s
been talked about. There
s
schools there. It
s a lot of.
Uh, issues. I actually had a
good friend, uh, older brother,
uh, get hit there, uh,
thankfully lived, but was 8
months in the hospital, so, uh,
that
s back in the, the mid 80s,
so this is not something new to
the city, um.
I think the traffic blitzes
have been working. I think
we
re at the point with the
omnipresence that uh.
The sheriff, you know,
represents, and the reason that
the omnipresence works is that
you see a sheriff, you know, on
this street and two streets
over, you
re not gonna speed
because you just saw a sheriff,
you
re not sure you
re gonna
see one again, uh, around the
corner, so something along the
lines of maybe announcing the
traffic, traffic blizzards. I
think people have been hammered
enough now where if we announce
the traffic blicits, it might
actually get the, the value
that we want before people even
get on the road that morning.
They MAY leave earlier, so
whether you do it that morning
or not, just announcing it
might be enough to.
To change the behavior and
we
re doing it enough where the
person MAY or MAY not know that
it
s happening that morning,
and it might give them the
value to just, uh, and if you
put it the night before or
something like that and it
starts to change that behavior
a little bit over time, you
know, week after week, um, it
starts to, uh, make that change.
Uh, I do believe that the
static displays, the, the using
the volunteer, uh, sheriff,
like, you know, just seeing the
black and white, it, it
automatically uh creates, uh,
that change.
So in areas where it might be
uh too dangerous or, uh, I
forget who it was that spoke
about it. It was this young
lady over here. I don
t, Laura,
no, no, it wasn
t Laura.
Connie, yeah Yeah, Connie,
Connie, yeah. So the idea is to
have, uh, maybe to be able to
put some static displays out in
the locations where it just
slows down the traffic before
we have the problem again I
know we wanna hammer people, we
wanna give them tickets, but
really we want to save lives.
So if, if it
s only about
tickets, then we MAY not be
saving the lives if we don
t
just get the behavior to change
over the course of time. Um,
and then I have talked about
this over, uh, there are
Parts of the world, uh, it
s
got to spend some, some time in
Australia last year for a
number of weeks, and the fact
is they use roundabouts
significantly better than we do.
I think in this city because of
our, um, the freeway that goes
through town and the uh the uh
railroad track that goes
through town, it changes our
lights so significantly that we
can
t get to the consistent
mobility of our traffic and so
we want to have a better
lighting system. We want to
have a better, uh, flow for the
thoroughfare, so people don
t
leave the thoroughfare.
That go through residential
streets where kids and
bicyclists and pedestrians
should be using those roads on
a more regular basis. Again,
I
m not telling people I
m not
going into this boulevard, but
it, it does, it has its, it
s
natural issues. So if we were
gonna do roundabouts instead of
doing one here, one there, you
know, uh, a grant here or there,
uh, have a comprehensive plan
of what it would look like. Do
we need 20? Do we need 50? Do
we need, you know, 100 in this
town to actually make the
traffic flow at, at a rate that
actually gets us from point a
to point b.
Consistent with the
availability of less.
Uh, direct, blunt crashes,
which we
ve shown in videos
here before that the
roundabouts lower the
fatalities in, uh, because of
the angle of the accident. It
s
an off kilter. It
s not in the
direct t-bone or head-on
collision model. So if we
re
going to do something of that
nature instead of just having
12 or 31 here, 1 there. What
would it look like to have a
comprehensive, uh, roundabout
plan in this city.
Um, and then something I don
t
think people are talking about
enough, but with what the onset
of the waymos and some of these
rideshare programs in the
bigger cities.
Uber started in, in dc, started
in la and San Francisco, and
now it
s all over the entire
world, so it
s only a matter of
time that we see rideshare in
the, uh, transportation as a
service coming our way and
seeing what that might look
like as at a greater capacity
of what it would, uh, how long
it looks like until we might
have 20%, 30%, uh.
Unmanned vehicles, you know,
driving and.
You know, taking people to
point a to point b, seeing what
that does for the safety
overall, um.
With regards to the, the
sensors and the ability for
those vehicles to drive the
exact speed limit, not going
over. There
s no human error in
that remodel. Obviously the
technology has to be there, but
it wouldn
t be a bad idea for
us to have an onset of what
that looks like in the city and
if that
s something that we
want to head towards, uh, as
those become more available.
Um, thank you, I rest.
Ok, and uh council member lines.
Thank you Mayor, um, I
m, I
m,
I wanna thank the public for
being here. I really feel like
this opportunity for everyone
to speak was really valuable,
and I appreciated all your
comments. Thank you. I always
learned a lot and, um, thank
you for putting the effort into
coming.
Um, so I, I do want to, uh,
start by saying I appreciate my
colleague
s comments so far. Um,
I will make it 3 so far that
are really, that, uh, I
m
really in support of some of
the things they
ve already
suggested, and, uh, so what I
wanted to, uh, to do is to
first just say that I share the
community
s concern about the
safety of our children, and I
feel where, where my
through line is on roadway
safety has to do with our
children, and we
re in the
position where we can lead as
the governing body, and I, I do
want to see us take some action
at this juncture.
Um, right now, also, staff is
bringing this forward to us to
say, oh, these are the things
we
ve done, and we
re hearing
from the public saying these
are the things we
d like you to
do. So we
re at a juncture
where we can give staff some
clear direction. So, I do want
to leave this meeting with
giving staff some clear
direction, um, on where I would
like to see us move forward and
also to compliment what my
colleagues are already saying
here from the dais. I feel like
our, uh, sheriff has done.
A really, really good job.
Kudos to Captain Watts. Um, I
d
like him and his team to
continue to do a great job and
be as well funded as we need,
and I look forward to future
discussion on that. If more
funding is valuable and how it
will be used, I will be open to
supporting it, but I do wanna
make sure I give a shout out on
that. What I would like us to
do here now then is to do as
well as he
s doing, um.
And that has to do more with
what action are we going to
take to have our roadways be
safer, not just the enforcement.
I want to start by saying,
I was at the um mts, uh,
commission meeting on AUGUST
10th, where a lot of the
community came forward to talk
about their concerns for
roadway safety, and the
commission was also talking
about their work plans. So it
was really good to hear the
community concerns. One of my
friends, Bill Shen, said,
Something that I think is
really poignant, and that is
vehicle drivers go the speed
the road invites them to go,
and I, I noted that at the time
and I thought, well, that
s
really another one of my
guiding principles when the
roadway allows a driver to go
fast, they will be invited to
go fast. And so I will, I will
place a lot of my emphasis more
on our roadway design and what
we can do to make our
pedestrians.
And our bicycles safer
Uh, I also support the fact
we
ve done a lot of research on
this already. We already have a
couple of data-driven documents.
The local road safety plan is
the one that was approved in
2022 and it has some really
outstanding, uh, data.
Uh, I just, I
ll just call to a
few things and then suggest
that we might consider these as
we go forward, looking at what
we do to make our pedestrian
and bicyclists safer on the
roadway and thus make everyone
safer on the roadway.
For example, in this
data-driven document, they have
safety measures or what they
call countermeasures, and they
recommend, uh, these, uh,
projects, specific projects for
funding. For example, they
articulate signal timing. They
articulate this document
articulates dilemma zones,
dilemma zones are where there
are a lot of an intersection
where there
s a lot happening.
Uh, they articulate bite boxes.
They articulate, uh, bike.
Markings and maybe the one I
want to land on is they, um,
outlined pedestrian crossings
with enhancements, the safety
measures associated with
pedestrian crossings at
intersections or wherever
pedestrians are crossing, and
the projects that are
articulated in this document
that at that time were
suggested to move forward as
the highest priority locations
only cost $292,000. So, um, I
wanted to.
Show that as an example of if
we really focus on where get
get staff to come back as we
re
talking about, you know,
looking at this document, maybe
we don
t need a full update
that
s going to take 9 months,
but maybe what we do is look at
this document, identify where
those top priorities are and
then challenge ourselves to
find the funding right away.
Sometimes it might just be
signal timing. Sometimes it
might just be the advanced
timing on the pedestrian
activated lights. Let
s find
that.
Lowest hanging fruit, and let
s
go for it right away. Let
s
take action. Um, and so I would,
I would be in support of
focusing on um these pedestrian
crossings at intersections, and
I
d be happy to consider
additional funding and how we
can move this forward as soon
as possible. I
ll rest.
Cap.
Ok, uh, council member of San
Antonio, thank you. Uh, thank
you, Mayor. Um, I just wanna
say thank you, uh, thank you,
staff. Thank you, Dan, thank
you, Captain Watts for the
excellent report. Thank you for
what.
You guys do for the city, um,
obviously, the numbers show
that you guys are doing
wonderful, um, work for the
city. Dan, great job on getting
this report together. I know
that
s a lot of work and I.
I believe that we are doing a
lot.
But can we be doing more?
Of course, that is what we
re
here for. We
re here to
continue the work. We
re here
to continue to build on what
we
ve done now into the future,
um.
I think
Everyone here in this room.
Is here for the same thing.
Fewer injuries.
I, I believe in Vision Zero. I
believe it
s, I do, I think
it
s possible. I, I truly in my
heart, I, that
s the, that
s
the goal. That
s where we want
to shoot for. So we want to
shoot for that goal.
Um,
So I, I don
t, I don
t brush
vision zero off. I think it
s
an important goal. I think it
s
something we should be shooting
for, um,
is no road deaths. Nobody wants
My kids are 3 and 5. My 5 year
old thinks he
s, you know, he
s
a teenager now. He wants more
and more.
Uh,
Rope to go down the hill to go
over here to go, and I, I live
off El Caminolo Don Norte, so
my sister lives on Cole Ranch,
um, and Lone Jack, so.
That doesn
t seem that far when
we walk over there, but I know
it
s just a matter of time. He
already went too far.
Sorry to go on a tangent here,
but he already went too far and
we let that leash out a little
bit too, too much. He went
someplace he wasn
t supposed to
be. So that alone for me,
that
s like one of those things
that
s like, oh.
A tense moment like.
That that could easily happen.
And that
s what makes that.
You know, the, I think it was,
uh, some, somebody, a gentleman
brought up our first Paul, um,
that.
Signalize light coming up when
you push the button that it
s
actually, uh, ahead of that in,
um, that rfp.
Great idea. I mean, I thought
that was a wonderful idea.
Um, because you
re right,
people drive. I, when I leave
that our neighborhood and I
drive down that that road.
People, people do, I.
Go down that road pretty quick.
Um, I actually saw one of my
neighbors with Bruce
s um speed
gun at the corner, clocking
people when I left my
neighborhood one day, um, and
he stopped me. He was like,
Marco, look what I
m doing.
Um,
So everybody here, I know we
re,
we
re all here for the, for the,
for the same reason. I
m not
here to say I
m right, you
re
wrong, I
m here because I want
to continue the work that we.
We are here talking about
I think, uh,
When I think about what
s
happening right now, I love
hearing the community come
forward with your ideas and the
evaluation, Mike.
I always love talking to you.
Um, you have a lot of great
input and I love what, what you,
the, the passion you bring, um,
so I always welcome those talks.
I,, I, I love talking to Laura.
I, I can sit here and, and name
off people. I went on a bike
ride with another concerned
citizen, um, and I very spry,
took me from Santaguido up and
over the hill up to Riquesa. I
think she was trying to
actually kill me because she,
the amount.
Time she took me over this hill
was.
Insurmountable for me but I did
it and I lived. But I did see.
From her point of view and from
the biker
s point of view, what
that, what these roads do look
like, and it makes sense to me,
um, I, along with what, um,
Deputy Mayor o
Hara and um
council member Schaffer bring
up the safer routes off the
main roads. That
s exactly what
I think when I talked about
with.
Um, our concerned citizens are
concerned biker that it made so
much sense to me when I
actually wrote it that.
There are issues here that we
can fix.
Um, and I
ll take that with me
just from that first, firsthand,
that first person point of view.
Um,
Let
s see here.
Um, again, I
m not trying to
say we
re doing everything
possible, but
The amount of things that we
ve
listed off here, it, it
s, it
s
quite a bit, and I, you know, I
look at the 4 priorities of
safe streets, speeding
intersections, DUIs, distracted
driving. I know we
ve we
ve
listed all of these things on
here, of all the things we
ve
done to
To mitigate these things or
help them or try to fix them
and again, we
ve done a lot.
There
s more to be done, and I
think that
s where I, I keep
going back to is I know that it
keeps coming back to.
You
re not doing enough or we
need to do more, but our work
is never done here. We could
probably stop talking about
this, get something passed, and
stop talking about it, but
something else will happen or
we
ll need to continue this
conversation always, so.
Let
s see, um, I know red light
cameras is coming up. I know
this is a very kind of hot
button topic.
Um, for me, I
m.
You know, I am in support. I,
I
ll say it right now.
I
m, it
s campaign season. This
might kill me. But what it, it
does for me is it
s, it
s
helpful for the residents. I
want to see at least, you know,
if this is a pilot program,
let
s see. Let
s see what it
does, because it
s, it, it is
gonna make a difference and
we
ll see if it does. If it
doesn
t, you know, it was here
before, it
s gone now.
I
ve talked to you guys. Safe
streets, enough about it, and I
believe in it, so let
s just at
least.
Let
s, let
s look, let
s take a
real look at it.
Um,
I think we, I think.
Uh
Again, I, I
ll just say this
also as well, so I
ll, and then
I
ll, I
ll, uh, and we
re short
on time. Um, I would support,
you know, additional traffic
deputies. I, I know that
traffic the behavior when I see
a cop, I know I, I don
t drive
fast, but I mean, I, I want to
lead by example, so I, I try to
really try to slow myself down
in my van, even when i
m going
downhill on Riquesa, I can just
not press on the gas. I
m, I
m
already speeding.
So I try to lead by example
because just like Bruce.
I don
t want to be the one
going, hey, that was a mayor
driving by. That was a council
member driving by. He just sped
right by me.
So, um, I
ll rest there, but.
I really do think this, whether
we
re it
s like, it feels like
it
s this. I don
t, I don
t
feel that. What I feel is like
you guys are giving us what we
need to hear and that maybe
that bit of abrasion or whatnot
with the way, however you wanna
to word it, gives us the, the
impetus to be like, all right,
like,
We gotta do more.
So, uh, I
ll rest. Ok. And
Deputy Mayor o
Hara.
Um, I wanna thank everybody for
their input today. Thank the
public for showing up today and
really participating. Um, I
think we all, it
s clear we all,
we all share your, your
concerns. It
s never-ending
task for us up here, um.
I wanna
Cover a couple of quick things
that, that I think aren
t on
this report.
And, you know, one is, I think,
um,
You know,
Certainly
When I walked in the building,
um,
a couple of years ago, I felt
like staff looked at unique
situational approaches to
things and individual sites,
intersections, intersection
where piecemelling a city
together.
Um, and I look at the things
like the csap and the, the
local roadway projects and, uh,
the other products and I look
at the circulation element
coming back and with the
partnership of council member
Chief are really pushing that
circulation. I want to come
back. We see this more holistic
plan coming together and it
s a
compliment to staff on their
hard work on it. Um, and while
we do address situational
pieces in there. Um, the city
s
approach has become more
systemic and looking at the
whole picture and within that,
the goal is 0.
Death. The goal is always zero
deaths to our ability.
It
s a shared responsibility
between the government and the
public.
Um, I have an 11 year old
daughter, and just like anyone
else here, I don
t live on a
busy street in Maine Arterial
in the city because I don
t
want my daughter playing on a,
on a busy street. I want to be
able to go out and play in the
middle of the street like you
see in movies. Um, even within
that, I live on a quiet street.
She has to go 400 yards up the
street so that she can see any
car that comes around the
corner and they can say, game
on, and hop off. When she
crosses our street.
Yell out the kitchen window.
Look both ways.
It
s never ending. It
s a
shared responsibility between
everybody using the road. And
we all realize that up here,
and we
re all working to move
forward with that, with its
pedestrians.
Cyclist vehicles and how they
all interact together.
And, and that
s never messed up
here by anybody up here, um,
staff has really bought into
this idea and and done a
fantastic job with it. City
manager
s office has really
done a great job on it. Um, and
I want to touch on the, the
unique situations like that,
that is also the second piece
that isn
t in there is
We
re meeting on site more
often than ever before, whether
it
s a council member, whether
it
s a city manager, whether
it
s the staff, um, and I can
look at an example of a great
example of that is that the
ymca, where we
re replacing
those chicanes with stop signs.
We met with the ymca Seacrest,
a number of the neighbors.
Staff was out there. The city
manager was out there, myself,
and we watched.
A failed infrastructure piece.
The shakes, we watched cars, we
watched an nctd bus. I
m
ashamed I
m ashamed to say it,
drive right over it.
Like it wasn
t even there.
Um, so infrastructure is great.
But we want to go back and make
sure it works. And I
m really
Glad and you didn
t put, you
didn
t put it on the, on the,
on the report, but I think you
should have. Like, you
re out
there.
Checking in on the projects
that you
re doing, do they work
with us and listen to the
residents on that. And I think
that
s a huge step in the right
direction for all of the stuff
we
ve talked about today. Um,
so, you know, as a result,
we
re taking the chicanes out
with the help of the ymc. We
came together to put up a stop.
We
re going to be putting a
stop sign, um, and we
ll go
back and we
ll check and see
how that
s working. Pedestrian
island in there, everything. Um,
so I think that
s something,
you know, I, I
m sure you
didn
t want to toot your own
horn, but I
m gonna toot it for
you. I think I really
appreciate that.
The staff is going in that
direction with all these, these
safety measures and listening
to our residents and, and what
they
re having to say.
Um,
I think, you know, I, I think
those ideas, signal timing,
dilemma zones, bike boxes, bike
markings, ped crossing
enhancements. I think you
re
referring to the csap, which is
on here, and I
m, I
m really
happy that we
re doing it. I
know the staff will bring all
of those back to us.
As urgently as possible.
Obviously, that
s why we
re
here, because these things are
a top priority in the city, so.
As they come back, uh, I
ll
please keep bringing them back
as quickly as possible, but I
think you
re already doing that,
and I expect that to continue.
So thank you.
Um,
Up here mentioned several times
was the city crossing guards
was on the site, um.
I
m gonna reach out to a few
people, you know, I, I, we, we
approved all 14, um,
And I
m gonna say all the
people here who are coming here
to talk about it. Join me at a
school board meeting and let
s
ask them.
If they can, instead of firing
Larry, move him to someplace
that we have open this year or
a site that
s on this map, like,
rather than get rid of.
3 or 4 good employees who are
doing a great job and great
service to the community. Let
s
go to the school board and say,
hey, city council
s gonna pay
for this.
We
ve already agreed to it.
Let
s reallocate these people.
Let
s not get rid of them.
Um, so if you want to join me
in that, please send me an
email. Let
s talk about it.
Let
s do it. Let
s go to the
school board, ask why that
happened, and let
s make sure
that
s still going forward
because we
re all working
together, the schools residents
and us, and we want to make
that happen. So, um, I think
that
s an important question.
It needs to, it
s worth
mentioning, um,
You know, it
s great that
there
s a, uh,
GoFundMe for Larry the crossing
guard. Uh, I hope they make it.
He seems to be a great guy, and
attribute to the community, um,
whether it
s political or not,
it doesn
t matter. He
s a great
guy. Um, but let
s get him his
job back.
Let
s do it. Um, so, I, I would
push for that. Um.
I
ll give you another quick
story. I visited my dad this
year, um.
In his town, which is a pretty
small town. Um, and, um,
Country roads, uh.
Not a pedestrian in sight,
probably not a cyclist in sight,
um.
Just the roads you want to have
like.
You know, fast rental car and
hit the gas and go down. Um,
speed limits are all 30 miles
an hour. Everyone goes 29.
And, and you won
t find anybody
speeding.
You know how the city pays its
taxes?
Tickets.
You go, you go 31 miles an hour
and you
re, we
re watching
sirens in the back window,
pulling you over, um, you know,
it, it as much as we don
t want
to become enforcement centric,
it, it, it makes a difference.
And it, it
s, we just have to,
the reality of it is it makes a
big difference. Um, I, I
absolutely support, uh, the,
the, and the two deputies are
looking for what the needs are,
what we can afford, when we can
afford them, um, and moving
forward and, and really, I know
that our, our sheriff
s
department is very responsible
in telling us what their needs
are.
And we
re dedicated to making
sure that those needs are there
so you can do your job
effectively. So I, I fully
support, uh, the mayor
s idea
on that. I think that
s really
great. Um,
I would like to add, I, I
d
like to see us approach other
cities and the county because I
think the county is a big part
of this, uh,
To have a a real healthy
discussion about entry points
within the city, because I,
what I
ve heard a lot of times
up here from our people who
ve
come up, um, Michael Durancy
s
mentioned it, you know, people
come up and they
re entering
the city quick.
And how do we, how do we
address that? And I think
that
s something we have to
partner with. And, and I don
t
know if that
ll happen
overnight, but we gotta start
the conversation. So let
s
start the conversation. Let
s
be the ones who start it.
Um, so I, I, I
m gonna look to,
to the mayor to help, you know,
let
s craft something together
to go to the other the other
mayors, the county supervisor,
and let
s, let
s write a letter
that says, hey, we want to get
going on this and see what they
wanna do.
Um,
Lastly, you know, I think.
We try to silo issues up here a
lot of times, and, and it
s
natural, it happens because
you
re talking about a very
specific project or a very
specific outcome.
And
I want to implore everybody up
here who
It
s here because they
re upset
about
Traffic and traffic measures
and traffic safety.
It
s not just traffic safety.
It
s a multitude of issues. I,
i urge you to.
Find out, ask the state, hey,
this, this housing mandate is
creating a dangerous situation
in our city.
Why?
What are we doing? What are we
trying to do? Get involved in
other issues. E-bikes, we just
spent
Hour and a half last time
talking about e-bikes and the
management of it and the
challenges of it, um, get
involved in the e-bike
conversation. Um, there are
multiple layers of any
discussion we have up here, and
I
m only hitting those because
we
re talking about traffic
today, um, but there
s multiple,
multiple areas we can go to
rather than silo over let
s
realize everything is
interconnected, um, and look at
it. That
s the way I know
council looks at it from every,
all 5 of us out there, city
manager office and our staff
are trying to work things every
interconnecting in that
holistic approach. Um um.
But I think that
s where part
of where we have to go and look
at those questions. Otherwise
they become too simple and they
become black and white, and
these are not black and white
issues. These are very gray
issues of how do we get the
best outcome. Some of it is the
responsibility, as you
re
hearing the responsibility of
the driver. Some of it is
responsibility of the, some of
it is the infrastructure, and
we want to address all that the
best we can. You know, I think,
um,
Just to reiterate the, the
e-bike discussion did include a
large portion of education. I
know the city, um, and this
elsewhere wasn
t in there. So
you
re gonna move forward with
some educational pieces and I
m
Sure that all traffic mode
modalities will be included in
that educational piece that
came out of the e-bike
conversation. So, um,
I
m
This job will never end, and we
won
t rest until we get
Safest sea as we can possibly
get.
And the safest city will be
with the least possible deaths
we can get across the way. If
if it
s 0, great. If it
s 1,
great, we want it to be as
close to 0 as we can get it
though, and we
re always going
to be moving forward. And even
when we think we
ve got it
right.
We
re all committed to moving
forward. That
s staff, city
manager
s department, uh, as
well as our, our council. I
m
sure any future council, um,
whether it
s 4 years from now,
10 years from now, 20 years
from now, it
s always gonna be,
you, you, you don
t, you don
t
sit in these seats and hear the
things we hear and talk to the
residents every day and not
prioritize this. So, um, I, I
m
really grateful everybody came
up here. Hopefully, you, you
feel all the shared concerns,
um.
That we have with all of you.
Um, I think I wanna compliment
staff, sheriff
s department,
and the city manager
s office
really acting. Obviously, um,
This is, this is.
Well, bad pun, a long road
ahead still, and we
re going to
keep going. So, um, thank you
to everybody for participating.
Thank you for coming out
tonight.
Ok. Um, so, uh, I think I
ve
got a couple of actions that
I
ve heard a specific actions.
Number one is to, uh, agendaize
the, uh, certainly within the
framework of the, uh, the
circulation element, goals and
policies, uh, coming back and
going through the
recommendations in the local
road safety plan and the
comprehensive safety action
plans, um, because they
re,
they
re, they
re slightly
different and, and one
s more
focused on a handful of streets,
uh, comprehensive plan really
only looks.
To the major streets and, um, I
did have one question for, uh,
council member Lyons. The
200,000, is that in the
comprehensive safety action
plan. I, I didn
t see that in
there. No, it
s, uh, it
s in
the local road safety plan. Um,
I did not, uh, yeah, it
s page
45. Ok, page 45.
And, and so I think there
s
gonna be more detailed
directives coming out of there,
you know, one thing that I
m
looking for, and I think it
came up tonight multiple times
is the RRFBs and how can we
make them safer because quite
frankly, I, I.
I
m not sure I
ve, I
ve seen
examples where I think we even
talked to the others talked
about it. Uh, the people don
t
necessarily stop for them.
They
re not sure what to do on
a flashing yellow. So, but, but
there is actually in the uh
comprehensive safety action
plan, there is a uh
implementation strategy 3.2.
I
m sorry, uh, there, there was
one in there that talks about
this, also talks about
increased use of uh.
Speed signs and so, so this is,
this is a I opened this up.
This is a multivariable. There
are quite a few different
moving objects or moving, uh,
Task tasks moving forward, uh,
and we
re not slowing any
others down. In other words,
red light cameras, that
ll be
agenda, uh, we, we have quite a
few others occurring. And, uh,
we, we will continue forward,
but, uh, so agendaizing the
lrsp and and and csap and then
uh also work with the, uh,
City manager and sheriff on,
I
ll say the need, the
logistics, and the funding for
additional this is a
multivariable. There are quite
a few different. What is going
on now.
Welcome to the new world of sb
707 where we
re broadcasting
red light cameras, that
ll be
agenda. Can we, uh.
You
re a robot. You you guys
had to hear me once. Now you
gotta hear me twice. So sorry.
Yeah.
I, I always tell people, you
know, the best it can hope for
is nobody complaining. That
s
the pinnacle of performance. So,
but hopefully, Warren, Warren
s
got me quieted down at my, my,
uh, ai, uh, agent over there
speaking for me.
Um, i
m gonna go back. Number 2
is, uh, work with, uh, city
manager and sheriff on the, uh,
need, logistics and funding and
funding for an and funding and
funding for an additional 2 and
funding and funding for an
additional 2 traffic deputies
likely at mid-year budget would
be my guess. So, and then the
thing we didn
t talk about much,
all those people mentioned it,
is continue pushing the
education, um, I, I went to the,
uh, sheriff
s, uh, meeting with
the, with the city, the session.
I thought it was excellent. I
d
like to see it repeated. I
d
like.
To see it videotaped and, and
add that as yet another
education component, so I think
those are the, the three
actions out of this meeting,
and I
m sure there
ll be more
in short order I would add the
for the circulation elephant
separating the having a a safe
travel lanes for the bikes.
Some, something of that nature,
just a, a, a proposed so we can
have something to start with
and go or, or do you, I, I
would do that right in with the,
uh, lrsp, uh, um, comprehensive
safety action plan at that
meeting, and we
ll bring it up
there and if we need to
separate it out as a
circulation as long as it comes
back, but my plan was during
that meeting to do everything
within the framework and
understand that we need to
update any policies in the
current circulation element. Ok.
Yeah.
With the, did you wanna? Ok
ok, yes, thank you. All right,
so I
m just gonna recap, um, if
that is the motion that goes
forward. So, um, I will work
with staff. Obviously, the
local road safety plan was
adopted back in AUGUST of 2022.
Um, the comprehensive safety
action plan was completed. It
was brought to, I want to say
the mobility and traffic Safety
Commission in either APRIL or
MAY of 2025. Ok, yep, I got my
dates right. Dan is signaling
me. Um, so obviously one has
been done and adopted, another
one has not been adopted by
council but has been finished.
So we will definitely bring
those forward so council can
see those and then depending on
what comes out of that, we MAY
have different asks because we
did have consultants work on
both of those to let you know.
I can definitely work with um
Captain.
And my finance team to look at
different financing and yes,
Mayor, it would be mid-year
cause because we need to get
through our audit as we
normally do and end of the year,
um, so we can do that. And then
as far as education, absolutely.
And one of the things is we
have additional funding, um, to
work on bike education, um,
with the MOUs with the schools,
um, they did not, um, take the
money. They didn
t want to
pursue the mou, so we do have
additional funding. So we are
going to use that for whether
it
s driver education, bike
education, absolutely we
re
gonna use that.
For that good as well. So I
just wanted to circle that up
if you guys make that.
Ok.
So I
ll make that in the form
of a motion and, uh.
Second, I got a 2nd.
You need to read it back, I
think.
So it
s to agendaize at a
future meeting to be determined
as I thought I heard around
OCTOBER if possible, yeah, as
soon as possible, as soon as
possible, uh, the lsrp and the
csap to look at where we
re at
in new opportunities with that,
um, also to work city manager
to work with the sheriff
s
department.
To explore the feasibility of
adding two deputies at the
mid-year budget.
Yeah, the need, the need the,
uh, um, logistics and funding
and funding, ok, and then also
to include an educational
component to that at a minimum
the, uh, uh, repeating the, the
city.
And Sheriff co-sponsored event
and maybe even videotaping it
so it
s available.
To be spread far and wide.
Can I add, uh, Amendment 2, can
we include, uh,
Writing a letter to approach
other cities in the county to
discuss entry points.
Absolutely. Ok.
We
ll include that as well. Ok,
so those are the, that
s the
motion and the 2nd, call the
question.
That motion carries unanimously.
And with that we are adjourned
until 2:25 after or do we wanna
go to?
I, I know you guys, we
ll go
till 6:30, so we
ll be, we
ll.
Uh, come back at 6:30.