City of Encinitas

MEMORANDUM

DATE: February 10, 2020

TO: City of Encinitas School District Liaison Committee

FROM: Ed Wimmer, P.E., City Engineer

CC: Carrie Bedord, Consultant Development Services Director

SUBJECT:

Capital Improvement Program and Traffic Updates

The following are updates for school related CIP and Traffic projects:

El Portal Street Pedestrian & Bike Underpass (Installing a pedestrian railroad undercrossing at El Portal Street from North Coast Highway 101 to Vulcan Avenue near Paul Ecke Central Elementary School)  100% plans  Construction expected to start July 2020  SANDAG is the Construction Manager  Art tiles and Bike Rodeo events with Paul Ecke Central students

Santa Fe Drive Corridor ATP (Pedestrian and bike improvements from Windsor Drive to El Camino Real including a traffic signal at Balour Drive. Also installing curb gutter sidewalk mobility and landscape improvements from Gardena Road to Bonita Drive with a Z crosswalk at San Dieguito Academy)  Project can be advertised for construction after Active Transportation Program grant construction funds are allocated in October 2020  Council expected to award design consultant contract on February 26, 2020

Verdi Avenue Undercrossing (Installing a pedestrian and bike railroad undercrossing at Verdi Avenue from San Elijo Avenue to Highway 101)  90% design underway

Birmingham Drive Streetscape (New sidewalk, street, pedestrian ramps underground utilities from Interstate-5 to San Elijo Avenue)  Consultant engineering firm conducting additional analysis of drainage and storm water quality recommendations to reduce post project flows to Rossini Creek  SDG&E designing undergrounding  90% design initiated

Traffic Updates:

San Elijo Avenue Sharrows (Installed sharrows on Santa Fe Drive to Chesterfield Drive parallel to CRT and a door zone buffer along San Elijo Avenue from Mozart Avenue to Montgomery Avenue)  Project completed 2/7/20

Capri Elementary School Speed Cushion (Installing a speed cushion at Capri Elementary)  Final evaluations and neighborhood vote

Piraeus Street Bike Lanes (New restriping to include bike lanes and narrower traffic lanes from Leucadia Blvd. to La Costa Avenue)  Project completion anticipated by the end of March 2020

El Camino Real Buffer Lanes (Adding buffer lanes from south of Santa Fe Drive to Manchester Avenue)  Project will be implemented by OMWD

San Elijo Avenue and Liverpool Drive Crosswalk (Installing crosswalk at San Elijo Avenue and Liverpool Drive)  Adding crosswalk; completion anticipated by the end of February 2020

Village Park Way (Adding a double left turn for Village Park Way (north approach) and a buffered bike lane in both directions between Encinitas Blvd. and Mountain Vista Drive)  Project will coincide with the FY 18/19 Pavement Repair and Overlay Project

S. Willow Spring Active Transportation (Adding bike lanes, buffers and an improved crosswalk on El Camino Real to Encinitas Blvd.)  Design alternatives and parking removal scenarios are being evaluated

Traffic Calming and Active Transportation (Adding traffic calming on Vulcan Avenue north of Encinitas Blvd to La Costa Avenue)  Narrowing traffic lanes  Adding a walkway and speed tables  Construction to begin in January 2020

Vulcan Avenue and La Costa Avenue Traffic Signal  Warrant analysis started in January 2020; design will start in March 2020 Safe Routes to Schools Recommendations

Capri Lack of path/sidewalks; recommendation to install path from Saxony to Rainbow Ridge Speeding cars; recommendation to install speed bumps Flow of traffic; additional options for traffic flow, including access to Rainbow Ridge El Camino Creek Additional crosswalk guards or safety personnel. Our community does not follow the rules for drop off and pick up nor do they follow the law—parking, turning, and crossing illegally. Our school staff is diligent and tries to educate but unfortunately the school community continues to behave inappropriately. It is not a safe environment for any walker or biker. ECC utilizes alternative campus entrances to relax car flow and short term park and wait areas Speeding cars and heavy traffic along Calle Barcelona towards El Camino Creek. There are no city posted signs along Calle Barcelona indicating that a school is nearby. Ideally awareness that an elementary school is located off this major road, drivers would take notice of more children walking/biking and drive accordingly. The back gate is a scary & dangerous place for pedestrians. Drivers park in the red zone, kids get dropped off in the driveway where people are standing. It’s so dangerous and parents have to be on high alert. People speeding and running red lights in the mornings on Leucadia Blvd. Additional crossing guards at side entrance to school There are speeding cars and no crosswalk guards at back gate We do a combination of walking and driving to school (with driving being our most utilized mode). My main safety concern is sadly the parents of students at our school. Many parents are making illegal u-turns on side campus roads, trying to rush through a crosswalk before families/students have fully crossed, etc

We walk to school and enter through the back gate on Paseo Aliso - there is a crosswalk, which is great! Unfortunately, cars drop their kids off in the red areas surrounding the crosswalk and then back up into the crosswalk when they are ready to drive away, endangering anyone trying to cross. Drivers are also very anxious to go through the intersection (Paseo Aliso + Via Adelfa) and don't always let the walkers cross in the crosswalk, they speed on through, especially as it gets closer to 8am and they are running late. Additionally, parents parking on the other side of Paseo Aliso from the back gate will allow their children to run across the street, instead of using the crosswalk. Finally, many people will make illegal U-turns in the middle of Paseo Aliso after dropping off their children.

Even though it is more crowded and congested with traffic, I drop-off at the front of the school because it is the only place I feel safe letting my kids out of the car. We have a back gate at our school and since there is less supervision there, I don't like to let my kids walk. A lot of parents don't follow traffic laws and it's not safe to cross the street there. I witness multiple traffic violations (rolling through stop signs, illegal u-turns, j-walking, speeding) each morning and I've even seen some very close calls with kids almost getting hit in the crosswalk. We are fortunate to have a crosswalk at our back gate, but there isn't anyone there to help kids cross and most people cross outside of the cross walk for convenience. I really hope we can get some support with helping make going to school safer for our kids. Thank you for doing this survey.

Encinitas Union School District December 2019 Safe Routes to Schools Recommendations

Flora Vista Challenges in staffing the new crosswalk in the afternoon (Wandering and Rambling)

Current crosswalk at Gardendale Road & Aspenglow: Drivers do not pay attention or stop, and drive down Gardendale very quickly. A number of families travel to school from the east side of Gardendale Road. With the curve in the road, if a car is parked directly in front of the crosswalk, it is hard for the driver to see pedestrians waiting. Suggested solution from the community is for a flashing crosswalk.

We live next to diegueno so it is a very busy street my daughter has to cross to get to and from school, especially when diegueno is approaching release time. Having a flashing crosswalk lights of some sort may help drivers pay more attention to the children in the cross walk? My daughter and our neighbor feel like they need to run across the street (willowspring) so they do not get hit by a car.

Requesting a lighted crosswalk and LED stop sign (for both east and westbound traffic) installed at the intersection of Mountain Vista and Shadow Mountain Drive/Wandering Road (Entrance to the Flair Encinitas community) many FV families live in this community and loads of kids walk to school. La Costa Heights The biggest help would be adding a crosswalk at Morada and Levante. (TONS of walkers and bikers at that intersection and it’s tough without a crosswalk.) Add a crossing guard at La Costa and Rancho Santa Fe. (recommend research on level of impact) Add a carpool board at the school to help parents connect for setting up carpools. Mission Estancia

We live by an intersection where kids from the lower street walk up a staircase and cross the street. Currently there is no stop sign, and it’s dangerous because people are zipping by to go to work in rush hour. PLEASE put in a stop sign and crosswalk! Corner of Camino Coronado and Via San Clemente. By Mission Estancia. There is a yield sign, so it wouldn’t be hard to just switch to a stop sign. Please send someone out to look at this intersection. A stop sign was installed a few blocks down on Calle Jalisco, and this intersection is much busier on a school morning. The corner of Via San Clemente and Camino Coronado needs a crosswalk and stop sign. It is a high traffic area in the neighborhood and not safe for kids to cross without a stop sign! Not enough stop signs! There are some blind corners that make it very unsafe. Consistent crossing guard morning and afternoon. Better signage or speed bump indicating a stop is necessary. Traffic and teenage drivers at LCC Crossing Maverick Way/ LCC is the largest barrier. Too dangerous for a kid to cross there with all the high school drivers. That she would have to bike on the main streets which have heavy traffic. If there was an option for her biking to school using a path with less traffic we would have her bike or walk. Parents and their oblivious driving. My child would love to walk to school but it would require her to be on Rancho Santa Fe which makes me very uncomfortable. The sidewalk is very narrow and the traffic is too quick. No markings indicating school zone on Calle Barcelona Could we get a flashing light around stop signs at crosswalk? Could we get a city sign to indicate no left turn during school hours? Crossing Rancho Santa Fe is dangerous Guard rail all the way down the sidewalk on Rancho Santa Fe

Encinitas Union School District December 2019 Safe Routes to Schools Recommendations

Ocean Knoll

The highest number of problems reported was no bike lane or no separated bike lane for many of the North-South roads between Melba and Santa Fe, bounded by Regal and Crest. Parents felt is was unsafe for anyone to ride a bike at the morning school commute time.

Cars speeding westbound on the wrong side of Melba between Evergreen and Bonita during school pickup is very unsafe. What is happening is cars are queued in the street in the westbound lane of Melba, waiting to pickup school children. They are backing up to the East of the school as far as Evergreen street, or further almost daily. Drivers wanting to proceed to the west using Melba, pass the waiting cars by using the wrong side of the road (driving west in the eastbound lane). This results in near head-on collisions daily, has cars speeding to try and pass before oncoming traffic reaches them, and has the cars turning back into their correct lane directly in front of the school. This is really unsafe for a lot of reasons. It would help to extend the no parking zone in front of the school all the way to Evergreen Street. That way the cars can queue along the curb and not in traffic. Cars speeding with distracted drivers, especially high school-age drivers, make walking to school unsafe. Speeding on Balour between Melba and Santa Fe was top area reportd for speeding. There are too many cyclists on the sidewalk on Melba riding between the pedestrians. It is unsafe for bicyclits and pedestrians, especially during the morning school commute time. Melba is too narrow for bikes and cars which is why parents tell their children to bike on the sidewalk. The sidewalk is too narrow for biking and walking.

Over grown vegetation at many of the intersection corners blocks the line of sight of cars, bicyclists and pedestrians making it very unsafe.

Communities East and North of the school do not have safe routes to bike or walk to school. Some parents felt their neighborhoods were neglected for safety improvements. High speed traffic, distracted drivers, drivers not looking to see if there were pedestrians or bicyclists in the crosswalk made it unsafe. For example, it was reported there are no safe routes to school from Willowsping or Crest Dr communities.

The start times of SDA, Ocean Knoll, and Oak Crest schools are all close together (15 minutes apart). This causes a ton of traffic (car, bike, pedestrian) during a short period of time (7:30-8:15am) Added to this are the many unexperienced high school drivers. It creates a lot stress and strain for families and neighbors in the mornings. There is a marked difference at morning drop off when SDA has late start or the high school district is closed. Adjusting the start times would make travel safer and encourage more families to walk/bike to school. Olivenhain Pioneer Additional safety on Rancho Santa Fe for walking to and from school.

Biking on Encinitas Blvd, then Rancho Santa Fe is not safe. There is no bike lane, and the roads are very busy during drop-off and pick-up. High speed of cars traveling along Rancho Santa Fe, between Leucadia and Calle Acervo, overly risky behaviors (ex. driving over the median to get around traffic). Recommend lowering speed limit and a police presence temporarily to heighten awareness.

Encinitas Union School District December 2019 Safe Routes to Schools Recommendations

Paul Ecke Central Oprheus Park: Additional bike racks Cereus / Hygeia corner: -Address overgrowth of neighbor’s bushes and trees. Visual hinderance for drivers. -Possible crossing guard to mitigate traffic and student crossing Proposed Hygeia and Leucadia Blvd roundabout -Slated to start June/July 2020 -Now will not be a guaranteed 4 way stop for crossing -Crossing guard to help students and traffic with roundabout? -Educational style training (Bike Rodeo) after construction finished Vulcan Avenue -No clear sidewalk or barrier for cars -Installation of guardrail -Address traffic speed Park Dale Lane

Having a safe/ large enough lane, sidewalk, or other space for bikes, scooters, and pedestrians on North side of Park Dale Lane Intersection of Park Dale Lane and Village Parkway- Cars speed, don’t stop- Many requests for a crossing guard, blinking stop signs, and a better police presence Sun in eyes on Country Haven and Park Dale Lane. Unsafe to cross here in mornings.

Encinitas Union School District December 2019 San Dieguito High School Academy

1. Add sidewalk at west side of Nardo Rd. from Santa Fe Dr. to Requeza St. 2. Deceleration lane on north side of Santa Fe Dr to visitor lot entrance. 3. Add bike lanes at Santa Fe Dr. 4. Add sidewalk at south side of Santa Fe Dr. 5. Add sidewalk to east side of Windsor Rd. to Santa Fe Dr., and complete at north side of Munevar Rd. to Windsor Rd.

DNO Safe Schools Route Initiative List of Ideas

1. Morning Sun neighborhood collaboration with city engineer 2. Adding bike lanes in the neighborhood - all the way down Village Park Way 3. Asking for extra school signs to post at the intersection of Village Park Way and Mountain Vista Rd (School Xing or School Speed Limit signs). 4. Speed bumps leading up to entrance of school. 5. Painting in road on Village Park Way leading to school, “School Xing” 6. Crosswalk painted across Village Parkway from corner of school turn around to north of Coolngreen Way. 7. A crosswalk going across Coolngreen Way at Village Park Way. 8. Landscaping - trim up bushes and trees to make visible at intersection of Village Park Way going south and Mountain Vista Rd. 9. At back entrance, lots of traffic due to both schools (OPE & DNO). Speed Limit School Zone Sign instead of just school crossing. 10. Crosswalk to get to Sun Vista Park. Watch for Pedestrians sign.

Oak Crest Middle School Route Initiative

1. Re-establish crosswalk across Oakcrest Park Dr. 2. Identify traffic calming solutions for intersection of Oakcrest Park Dr. and Balour Dr. a. Add additional school zone sign after St. John’s? b. Cut back greenery hiding school zone sign at Balour Dr. (south of campus) c. Add speed bumps? d. Relocate cross walk south of existing?

BALOUR DRIVE MEETING MINUTES

Meeting: November 18, 2019 at 10:00 am City of Encinitas, City Hall

Attending: Kellie Hinze, Council Member Joe Mosca, Council Member Ed Wimmer, City Engineer Abe Bandegan, Traffic Engineer Bill Graham, Grandparent of Saint John Student

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss traffic and pedestrian issues on Balour Drive related to Oak Crest Middle School and Saint John School. The following items were discussed: 1. Bill Graham said the recent mid-block pedestrian crossing and bicycle striping made the situation more dangerous for Oak Crest Middle School students. 2. School dismissal times need to be coordinated to reduce congestion on Balour Drive. 3. City of Encinitas might pay for half the cost of a school crossing guard at Oak Crest Middle School. 4. Oak Crest Middle School should control students when dismissed. 5. Oak Crest Middle School should provide adult supervision at Balour Drive when students are dismissed. 6. Oak Crest Middle School students ride bicycles on the wrong side of the Balour Drive. 7. City of Encinitas might allow a traffic light at Oakcrest Park Drive 8. City of Encinitas said Saint John should apply for new entrance road and traffic light to line up with Oakcrest Park Drive. 9. Public schools cannot always determine their times for beginning and ending the school day. State of California controls public school schedules. 10. Saint John School may attend School District Liaison meetings. 11. Bill Graham will talk to Saint John about future traffic light and dismissal times. 12. Bill Graham will suggest Saint John attend School District Liaison meetings.

Bill Graham