Last week the traffic commission of San Marcos held a meeting in which several improvements were authorized for the San Elijo Hills Town Center to improve pedestrian safety.
Here is the list of items.
- All six of the traffic lights had their yellow times and all red times changed. Some were made longer and some were made shorter in accordance with state guidelines. Watch for the changes. All had their all red light times lengthened in order to give an extra cushion of time.
- All six of the intersections will have new cross walks painted with piano key type strips. This should give motorists a better sense that this is a shopping area meant for walking.
- Two new radar speed signs will be installed on San Elijo road. One between Schoolhouse way and Elfin Forest just before the speed change to 25 MPH. The other will be installed just before the Chevron station before Baker Street also where the speed changes to 25 MPH. These signs will have the ability to tally speeders, the times of day that speeding occurs, number of cars and more data about traffic flows. That information will be sent to the sheriff’s office that can then better staff officers for enforcement if necessary.
- The 25 MPH zone on San Elijo Road that starts after you cross Elfin Forrest will be moved to the other side of the road toward Schoolhouse way to slow traffic before the Elfin Forrest traffic light.
- The 45 MPH speed change after Baker Street once you pass the Chevron station will be moved closer to Baker Street. Right now you are supposed to continue at 25 MPH till you pass the 45 MPH sign down San Elijo road.
- Last, I am not sure how many of the traffic lights will be getting what is called RAT indicators, but they will be installed on some of the traffic lights. They allow officers to stay on the cross streets not in your view from San Elijo road and determine if a red light has been violated for ticketing purposes, so be aware of this change.
It is expected that the changes will be made over the next three months. After that, once the statistics come in from the radar speed signs, the changes will be evaluated in order to determine if more changes are necessary. It has been determined that the current three school zone radar signs are not working properly and are past there useful life but there is no money in the current budget to change them. My hope is that can be accomplished next year.
Elliot Herman
Meridian Neighborhood Representative
Editors note-Thanks to Elliot for providing this report
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