Utilizing stop signs to regulate vehicle speeds and create traffic calming and pedestrian safety are the prescription that the Transportation Safety Committee and the Planning Commission have asked for. But City Engineer Netra Khatri is telling us that those stop signs might not be so easy to put in.
Thursday, May 18, 2023
At last night’s City Council meeting, our City Engineer Netra Khatri gave a report to the Council on Arcata’s local road safety plan. I found Netra’s presentation and the ensuing Council discussion to be interesting and valuable. Images of the prioritized future safety project map and the 21-minute video of this segment of the Council meeting is below, click here.
As part of the discussion, Vice-Mayor Meredith Matthews asked about reducing the speed limit on K Street to 20 miles per hour. In response, Netra Khatri announced a near-future resolution to reduce the speed limit to 15 miles per hour in the school zone on K Street where the Montessori High School is located, for when school students are present.
Netra Khatri also spoke of installing a push-button pedestrian crossing with a flashing signal — on K Street at 8th Street, at the Montessori school.
Why this is bad news
The installation of a push-button pedestrian crossing is not good to hear. Why? Because the universal request is to have stop signs placed on K Street as part of traffic calming and public safety improvements. A push-button pedestrian crossing is indeed an improvement but is only a small step toward making K Street safer.
I spoke with Netra after the meeting. It seems that there are regulations regarding the installation of stop signs, based on actual traffic needs. The side-street traffic from 7th Street, 8th Street, 9th Street, and 10th Street is not sufficient to warrant stop signs along K Street at those intersections. Based on my conversation with Netra, stop signs cannot be placed on K Street strictly for traffic calming and pedestrian safety purposes. There must be a traffic-needs situation.
Needless to say, this doesn’t make sense. What about all the 4-way stop signs at street crossings on G, H, I, and J Streets? As Patricia Cambianica has pointed out, in the span between 14th Street and Samoa Boulevard:
- G Street has 5 stop signs
- H Street has 6 stop signs
- I Street has 4 stop signs and two street circles
- J Street has 4 stop signs and one street circle
- and K Street has only 1 stop sign in a 3,000 foot length of travel.
More research and more discussion with Netra are needed on this. All of those stop signs on G, H, I, and J were put in a long time ago and apparently are immune to the newer regulations. The appropriate section of the California Vehicle Cade about stop signs seems to be around 21350, found here. Such as: “21352. The Department of Transportation may erect stop signs . . . whenever the department determines that it is necessary for the public safety and the orderly and efficient use of the highways by the public . . . .” Okay, that’s for the State — how about for us?
Clearly Netra is the expert on this, and clearly also: We need to figure this out.
The Planning Commission, the Transportation Safety Committee, and numerous citizens across a wide range of ages, abilities, and backgrounds have all asked for traffic-calming measures to be enacted on K Street. And it’s up to Netra to figure out the nuts-and-bolts of how to do it.
So let’s ask our City Engineer, Netra Khatri:
- What indeed are the regulations with regard to using stop signs for traffic-calming and speed regulation.
- And if the regulations say that we’re not supposed to use stop signs in this manner — how do we get around that regulation?
I don’t want Netra to tell us what we can’t do. I want Netra to tells how to do this.
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Prioritized Safety Projects
Overall view
The Local Road Safety Plan – Video
City Engineer Netra Khatri’s report to the City Council on Arcata’s local road safety plan.
21-minutes.