City officials will take a closer look at how to make pedestrians more visible while traversing key downtown Morgan Hill crosswalks, which have been criticized as too dark in the evenings and not marked clearly enough for motorists.
These crosswalk measures—focusing on Monterey Road—could include overhead lights or reflective hand-held flags that walkers could carry while crossing. However, city staff suggest avoiding the use of permanent speed bumps or flashing beacons that could be obtrusive to downtown patrons and the overall “ambiance” that the city is trying to create, according to discussion at the April 6 Morgan Hill City Council meeting.
Councilmembers directed staff to proceed with a list of downtown traffic safety improvements approved by the five-member body in September 2015, and add some form of crosswalk delineators on Monterey Road to the effort.
The council requested an update to the ongoing “traffic calming” efforts after a vehicle hit two pedestrians in the crosswalk at Monterey Road and Third Street in a March 12 accident.
Despite that accident, in which police say one of the pedestrians was cited for public drunkenness, MHPD Capt. Shane Palsgrove said at the April 6 meeting, “We consider downtown a very safe area.”
The motorist in the March 12 collision was cited for a traffic violation. Palsgrove said that was the only traffic accident downtown so far this year, and there were a total of six collisions in 2015. Much of downtown was under construction in 2015, limiting Monterey Road traffic to single lanes at times.
Police have recently conducted speed surveys on Monterey Road and deployed the city’s radar trailer—an educational effort to let motorists know how fast they are driving. During a week in late March, the speed survey found that about 97 percent of motorists on Monterey Road travel slower than 31 mph, Palsgrove said. The speed limit on Monterey Road downtown is 25 mph.
Historically, most downtown accidents are the result of traffic violations, including illegal turning movements and running red lights, Palsgrove added.
“We can account for most variables, but we cannot control for the human element,” Palsgrove said.
Four lanes a ‘long walk’
Regardless of what the numbers show, councilmembers and the public agree that certain downtown crosswalks could use some additional lighting or other enhancements to make pedestrians more visible, especially at Third Street.
Morgan Hill resident Chris Monack told the council April 6 he recently spent a few hours sitting still in the area of Monterey Road and Third Street, watching the interaction between pedestrians and vehicles. “The city needs to do something that identifies the crossing for pedestrians,” he determined.
City Councilmember Larry Carr said the need for better pedestrian safety stems from the council’s decision last summer to keep Monterey Road in its current four-lane configuration, after a “road diet” experiment failed to win over the public and downtown businesses.
“Pedestrian safety and traffic calming are a big part of the downtown,” which is likely to become even busier in the coming years with new parks and restaurants under development. While Carr noted that all the downtown crosswalks that are not protected by traffic signals could benefit from more safety measures, “the particular focus is Third Street.”
“That is going to continue to be a more popular place to cross the street…We set the direction that Monterey Road is going to continue to be two lanes (each way), and it’s a good long walk from one side to the other.”
Can the downtown vibe and pedestrian safety coexist?
Those in charge hope they can create a downtown vibe that is friendly to visitors (notably restaurant patrons) without sacrificing traffic safety.
Some efforts to do that were approved by the council in September 2015, including a traffic signal at the intersection of Monterey Road and Fourth Street. Morgan Hill Economic Development Manager Edith Ramirez said that measure will be a “big win” for slowing down traffic. The traffic signal, which is intended to accommodate vehicles exiting and entering the parking structure on Fourth Street, is expected to be installed by April 2017 at an estimated cost of $350,000.
City staff and the council are leaning away from flashing lights at crosswalks because it doesn’t fit in with the preferred downtown atmosphere. The same argument goes for permanent speed bumps, which create noise and exhaust fumes, and are “not the best treatment for a dining district that has active outdoor dining,” Ramirez said. This is one reason why permanent speed bumps were removed from the Third Street area in 2015, when the road diet began.
Morgan Hill resident Kathy Sullivan told the council, “Flashing beacons can be visual pollution, which will shine in the faces of our restaurant patrons.”
Ramirez added, “Short of having traffic signals at every intersection, I don’t know what we can do to provide absolute pedestrian safety. There are a number of measures we are exploring.”
City staff have also noted that the speed limit cannot be arbitrarily lowered if the city wants to be able to crack down on speeders. By state law, enforceable speed limits must be based on approved surveys that demonstrate how fast motorists typically drive on the surveyed roadway.
Speed bumps currently in place on Monterey Road at the Fourth Street intersection are temporary. They were installed in order to get motorists used to the coming traffic signal, and to handle the extra traffic that will be generated by the new parking garage when it opens later this spring.
Other traffic safety improvements approved by the council in September 2015, either already completed or in development, include adding green bicycle markings in the roadway imploring motorists to share the road; narrowing vehicle lanes from 10.5 to 10 feet in width; slurry sealing the street for new directional stripes; movable pedestrian signs installed at key crosswalks; more bike parking; and lighting in Monterey Road street trees.
The total cost of these efforts—including the Fourth Street traffic light—is about $600,000.
