SANTEE – Walls of brake lights. All-too-brief green lights. Gridlock.
Some drivers fume over Santee's thickening traffic as new shopping centers emerge and freeways link the city to the rest of the region.
What's to be done?
The long-awaited state Route 52 extension is supposed to help soothe the city's traffic woes when it is finished by the end of 2010. But city officials are looking at other improvements and already are making changes.
Their guide is a $70,000 plan the city hopes to complete this fall. A consulting firm came up with a batch of ideas after studying traffic conditions throughout the city and has offered a draft version.
The plan homes in on ways to improve the city's 10 most congested intersections, half of which fall along Mission Gorge Road. Ideas range from installing pedestrian push buttons at crosswalks to adding lanes.
The Santee City Council is to discuss the plan, which was prepared by Anaheim firm Meyer, Mohaddes Associates, at its meeting Wednesday. It's too early to tell what the final version will include, but costs, potential funding sources, and “bricks and mortar” suggestions, such as which streets to lengthen and widen, are expected over the next few months.
The city already is moving ahead with two ideas, and a third is on the way.
Traffic sensors at five intersections are being changed to better detect cars, and by the end of the year, stoplights along Carlton Oaks Drive at Fanita Parkway and Pebble Beach Drive will allow drivers to turn left on a green light even when the green arrow is not illuminated.
By early 2007, work could begin on re-timing traffic signals in the city to keep up with changing traffic patterns.
“Anything like that would sure be helpful,” resident Becke Courtney said of the left-turn improvements.
Courtney commuted for 20 years through traffic from her Santee home to her job in Kearny Mesa. An earlier workday now means she avoids gridlock on city streets and state Route 52, but she still hits traffic doing errands on her days off.
Drivers might not need the 62-page draft plan to know which intersection ranked most congested: Mission Gorge Road and Magnolia Avenue. It received an F grade for its peak afternoon rush hour, meaning drivers wait an average of more than 80 seconds before crossing, and a D for peak morning rush hour, meaning an average wait of 36 to 55 seconds.
The rankings are based on factors such as traffic volume, capacity and number of lanes.
It's also no surprise that other top congested intersections are along Mission Gorge Road, including Cuyamaca Street, Town Center Parkway, Carlton Hills Boulevard and Fanita Drive, according to the plan.
“Mission Gorge is terrible,” Courtney said, standing outside a juice store at Trolley Square shopping center one recent afternoon. “It's awful. There's a stoplight every few feet. Used to be you could drive through town and stop once or twice.”
Adding pedestrian push buttons and additional westbound and southbound lanes could improve conditions at Magnolia Street and Mission Gorge Road, according to the plan. The city could also widen Mission Gorge Road at Cuyamaca Street, Fanita Drive and Carlton Hills Boulevard. The capacity of Carlton Hills Boulevard and Carlton Oaks Drive may need a boost.
The plan is a good starting point but needs work, said Gary Halbert, deputy city manager and development services director. Halbert said he hopes the document will be a guide for future improvements.
The changes to the Carlton Oaks Drive stoplights – allowing left turns without the green arrow – could be a glimpse of the future. Depending on how they fare, Halbert said, they could be added “wherever possible.”
The plan also calls for adding 10 closed-circuit video cameras, which would allow city staff to watch for broken equipment or accidents. One already sits at Mission Gorge Road and Cuyamaca Street.
Another idea would have drivers going to a Web site to watch images of road conditions.
Halbert said Santee is more likely to work on these projects with other communities than tackle them alone.
“It makes more sense for these things to be done on a larger basis,” Halbert said.
The road-condition Web site might catch on with drivers, resident Daniel Saparto said recently as he sat on a bench at Trolley Square waiting for the trolley. Saparto said he was skeptical about re-timing traffic signals, because that wouldn't change the number of cars on the road.
“They're building up pretty fast,” Saparto said of the city.
Folks are commuting to Santee to shop at stores like Wal-Mart and Costco, he said, and the city is approving more housing. That's OK, but “it gets congested for a little town like this.”
Michele Clock: (619) 593-4964; michele.clock@uniontrib.com
