Santa Barbara County Grand Jury • 2013-2014 • Agency Response
Response to: Union Valley Parkway

City of Santa Maria*

Published: August 05, 2014 3 pages
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Findings and Recommendations 3 findings

F1
"Union Valley Parkway at California Boulevard intersection is not a four-way stop." The City agrees with the finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
"Install a four-way stop at the intersection of Union Valley Parkway and California Boulevard." City's response: The recommendation will not be implemented because a four- way stop is not warranted. Staff completed a 12-month accident history analysis of the intersection, 24 hour vehicular volume counts on all four (4) approaches, intersection morning (a.m.) and evening (p.m.) peak hour pedestrian counts and vehicular turning movement counts. Using this data, staff completed the stop sign and signal warrant analysis and the intersection did not meet the necessary criteria to install a traffic control device. The criteria of minimum correctable accidents and minimum traffic volumes with delay were not met for a four-way stop. Only one (1) collision has occurred in the past twelve (12) months and minor roadway vehicular delay does not exceed 30 seconds. Per the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (CA MUTCD), Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Publications, and transportation engineering standards of practice, unwarranted stop signs create problems at both the intersection and along the roadway by: Encouraging motorists to drive faster between intersections in order to . save time. Placing stop signs unnecessarily promotes speeding between the intersections as drivers try to offset the delays caused by stopping frequently; Encouraging violation of traffic laws. As the number of stop signs increase . so that nearly every intersection has one, the rate of stop sign violations tends to increase; Encouraging the use of alternate routes. Placing too many stop signs in • some areas often causes traffic to use other neighborhood routes to avoid a sequence of intersections that may be controlled by stop signs; and Increasing the chance that drivers will disregard conflicting vehicle and City's response: The recommendation has not yet been implemented. Staff will locate the signs based on guidance from the CA MUTCD. The signs will be installed within the next six (6) months.
F2
"Drivers on Union Valley Parkway traveling east or west may not be aware, nor are they warned, that there is an upcoming intersection at California Boulevard." The City disagrees with the finding. UVP has striping that breaks, as is standard practice, at the intersection with California Boulevard, as well as visible curb returns and unobstructed sight distance for eastbound and westbound vehicular traffic.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
Page 2
"Install appropriate warning signs on east and westbound Union Valley Parkway as it approaches California Boulevard." City's response: The recommendation has not yet been implemented. Staff will locate the signs based on guidance from the CA MUTCD. The signs will be installed within the next six (6) months.
F3
"There are 'Cross Traffic Does Not Stop' signs on the north and south stop sign posts 5500 on California Boulevard as it intersects Union Valley Parkway." The City agrees with the finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
"If Recommendation 1 is accepted, replace the "Cross Traffic Does Not Stop" plagues on the north and south stop signs on California Boulevard as it intersects Union Valley Parkway with 'ALL-WAY (four-way) stop plaques." City's response: The recommendation will not be implemented because

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.