Wednesday Night The San Marcos Sheriff held a community forum with 30-40 San Marcos and San Elijo Hills Residents. The following is an outline of some of the questions from residents and responses from The Sheriff Deputies.
A San Elijo Hills resident pointed out the ten or so accidents at the corner of Eclipse and San Elijo Hills Road. The Sheriff pointed out the improvements The City had made to the area with reflectors, LED lighting, chevrons signs, lighting at that corner. The Sheriff remind the audience that the City of San Marcos is responsible is for streets, signage, and traffic lights. They are aware of the problems of that intersection.
One resident asked if more stop signs could be placed in San Elijo Hills. The resident give example of traffic calming on Olivenhain Road as a result of stop signs. This should be taken up with The City of San Marcos and it’s Traffic Commission and City Traffic Engineers.
A resident stated they lived in the San Elijo Hills Town Center immediately adjacent to the San Elijo Hills visitor Center and that an accident last summer had caused a car to land right their front door. They also reported that an accident had taken place there this morning in front of the Epoch Wine Bar. They also stated that there are numerous accidents late at night that go unreported and that there is high-speed travel through the town center at late at night. They asked why there is a not patrol after 6:00 PM?
Another resident asked why and when they do targeted mass patrols in particular areas and what makes that happen. The sheriff responded and said monthly the additional patrol groups work together and target particular trouble areas in San Marcos, Poway, and other areas they patrol. Call and make complaints. Data drives patrols.
Some residents asked why there are no patrols early in the morning. The sheriff stated that their patrol shifts change over at 6:00 AM and they have briefing meetings and then they head out for patrol.
One resident spoke about calling the sheriff and being told that San Elijo Hills residents need to make up their mind whether they like the patrols or not a lot of pushback against the amount of patrols. The audience appeared to respond that they overwhelmingly like the patrols.
It was pointed out by one resident that the students need to be educated on traffic and safety. Students are seen walking to the town center texting, not taking preventative measures to keep themselves safe, nor obeying the crossing guards etc. or traffic lights.
The City has done studies and is currently doing studies to optimize the traffic lights and the timing of the lights to best protect children in the crosswalks.
The City of San Marcos is going to paint 25 MPH speed limit on the road in the San Elijo Hills Town Center and add additional street signs.
One of the deputies stated that he likes the social media campaigns and chain emails that alert SEH residents to their patrols. He says 5 years ago a lot of the tickets were given to residents now they see a shift to people who are commuters from Riverside County, Escondido coming through the area. He felt is was helping residents slowdown.
The Sheriff deputies also recommended that residents should carpool, that simply carpooling could cut the traffic in half and cut down the traffic impact on the area they recommended an education campaign at the local schools.
Theme of the night was “Go” to the San Marcos City Traffic and Safety Commission meetings the first Wednesday of the month. The sheriff deputies recommended that residents attend those meetings as the commission and the traffic engineers have the biggest impact on signs, and lights.
One Sheriff deputy told a story about how speed bumps can backfire. Residents in Poway asked for and got speed bumps. People passing through would honk to express frustration after they passed over the speed bumps. The theme of this story was careful what you ask for.
One San Marcos resident expressed frustration in the notification of this meeting he felt residents outside of San Elijo Hills were not properly notified of this meeting. He was confused by the Sheriff’s Nixel notification system, and the last-minute nature of the meeting.
One San Elijo Hills resident pointed out that the developer, school district and ultimately The City are responsible for traffic and congestion. The traffic has far exceeded their original forecasts and enrollment has far outgrown the capacity of the schools.
The Sheriff Department was asked how many deputies are on patrol at any one time. 2 are on traffic (4 on Wednesday), 6 are on city-wide patrol throughout the city. They recommend you tell The City and elected officials you would like more deputies under contract.
One San Elijo Hills resident recommended that residents drive the speed limit to effectively block speeders and slow down the traffic.
Residents expressed their appreciation to The Sheriff Deputies for protecting their homes during the Cocos fire.
Meeting was cordial and lasted approximately one hour.
I was the person that asked why the meeting was “sponsored” by the District Attorney’s Office and conducted by an outside attorney. I’ve never heard of the DA sponsoring a traffic safety event! I was also the person that said I live in the closest community to SEH and have never received notification about the new school being built or this traffic safety meeting. It just happens a friend saw this event on Nixis just 24 hours before the event and told me about it. Isn’t Nixis usually used for emergency notifications? Why only 24 hours notice to outside the community of SEH? Why use an emergency notification service?
The 7 Sheriff standing in front of the crowd taking questions kept telling the guests that they basically couldn’t do anything about the traffic problem that it was up to the residents to go to the City with their concerns. That was good advice. I’m sorry, but this meeting may have had good intentions, but obviously it accomplished very little, and raises many questions. Maybe if there was 2 weeks notice given to ALL San Marcos residents, there would have been more than 30 people at the meeting.