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County of Marin
Comments on the Proposed Sir Francis Drake Boulevard Rehabilitation Plan
The Marin County Public Works Department open house on June 1, 2016 presented the Sir Francis Drake Boulevard Rehabilitation Plan, and its proposed changes to twelve intersections or sections along Sir Francis Drake Boulevard between Eliseo at the eastern end and Elm at the western end. Assuming undertaking all would be ideal, but finite funds probably require a reduced scope, priority has to be given to the elements that safely improve traffic flow over the course of the entire day, not just during peak periods.
These are the elements of the SFDB rehabilitation project that I consider to be priorities, listed from East to West.
1 - Implement Adaptive Signal Controls for at least the three lights – at Eliseo, La Cuesta, and El Portal.
2 - Eliseo & Barry - Ok as designed
3 - La Cuesta - Ok as designed
4 - El Portal Drive- Ok as designed
5 - Manor Intersection - Reposition the crosswalk.
6 - Wolfe Grade - revise crosswalks across West side of the intersection.
7 - Laurel Grove intersection – revise crosswalk and sidewalk.
8 - Ash Avenue - add Lighted crosswalk, sidewalk as drawn.
9 - Widen the multi-use path on north side of SFDB.
Comments:
I am not convinced that all changes are justified because the DPW considers the road to be “dangerous.” The number of traffic incidents & collisions is very small. If it involves you, of course, that’s one too many. But the number is super small considering the number of cars passing over the roadway every day.
I think the number was less than 100 over a five year interval. Almost 50,000 cars pass through the BonAir Center daily.
Adaptive Signal Controls:
These should be implemented at the three lights at Eliseo, La Cuesta, and El Portal, if funds are insufficient to link all lights within the scope of this project. One concern is that the Control system has to be monitored 24x7 to reset faults when and if they occur, but that could be out-sourced to a monitoring agency for nominal cost.
Various comments from County DPW indicate the adaptive Signal Controls can be adopted relatively easily. However, the lanes must be realigned at these three intersections because the existing inner through-lanes face each other.
Twenty five percent of the SFDB traffic exits the roadway between Eliseo and El Portal. These three lights are critical elements in getting those cars off the road as rapidly as possible, and moving the rest through.
If we improve anything that puts more traffic pressure on eastbound highways (101 and 580), it will put pressure on CalTrans to improve access from SFDB to those highways.
It seems the State and Regional highway overseers have no interest in addressing the congestion their roads cause. They may be waiting for ”our” local improvements before they take any action. Conversely, if we wait for the State or Regional agencies to add lanes and make improvements, we will miss an opportunity to make meaningful progress, even if it involves only the first mile of SFDB, East of 101.
The traffic study predicted the retiming of signal lights would be the biggest bang for buck in the entire project. Therefore, the revisions to these intersections and the installation of Adaptive Signal Controls will help in the near and long term. It does not fix all congestion problems, especially at maximum traffic periods when too many cars are on the road with no downstream capacity to absorb them when they get to the one-lane bottlenecks at 101. But, it takes many seconds off the transit time during off-peak periods.
Three intersections are doing the heavy lifting.
David Parisi, the traffic consultant, says relocating the pedestrian crosswalks as drawn at these intersections will not slow right turns onto or off of SFDB, and that the impact on following traffic will be insignificant. However, he maintains that the benefit to pedestrians is very significant.
According to Parisi, Pork Chop islands are obsolete. For example, Maui has been installing pork chops at lighted intersections to SLOW bicyclists using bike lanes. The Result: They force bicycles out of bike lanes and into auto traffic on green lights! This convinces me that pork chops are not beneficial for either pedestrians or autos.
Removal of the pork chop islands and relocating the crosswalks at these intersections at they are shown on the schematic drawings (Eliseo & Barry, La Cuesta, and El Portal Drive).
These changes are critical at El Portal for emergency vehicles traveling East on SFDB to make right turns. The existing pork chop islands are also problematic for fire trucks, per Parisi. The proposed design addresses the needs of emergency vehicles. In addition, there is a room on the right for a few vehicles to transition out of the SFDB east lane prior to turning right onto El Portal. The new design is slightly better than the existing configuration.
The Manor Intersection
This is a hazardous intersection now. It is used by kids going to/from school, and when standing in the crosswalk near the Eastern corner they cannot be seen by a right-turning driver. Relocating the crosswalk will help.
The Wolfe Grade intersection crosswalks across West side of SFDB.
The proposed changes are mandatory work to make an ADA compliant crosswalk for access to Bacich and the residences on the south side of SFDB.
The Laurel Grove intersection - reconfigure crosswalk and sidewalk.
This gets heavily used, by kids, en-route to Bacich and Kent. The reconfiguration of the crosswalks and the sidewalks, as drawn, will help.
At Ash Avenue - add lighted crosswalk and sidewalk .
This is a dangerous crosswalk. On demand flashing lights and slightly altered sidewalks will help. I suggest adding an additional flashing light at the curve east of this intersection. Traffic studies show that local drivers become desensitized to such lights, resulting in no benefit, just cost of maintenance.
Widen multi-use path on north side of SFDB
This should be done because it is an important route to schools. It’s a mess now. The oversized safety barriers encroach on the narrow sections, and vegetation overgrows the opposite side of the path. The existing path is more difficult to navigate than it should be.
Other considerations:
I spoke with Dan Dawson about the gardeners’ safety while working in the planted medians. He said the DPW is studying the issue. This probably will result in a 12” wide “sidewalk” along each side of the median. This would serve two purposes. It keeps the gardeners safe and it keeps vegetation from overgrowing into the traffic zone.
I do not object to the proposed changes at the eastern intersection of McAlister and SFDB, but I don’t see it as critical.
I also do not object to painting lane stripe on the right side of the right lanes. It probably improves safety for drivers emerging from parked cars and intrepid bicyclists who choose not to ride on the creekside path. It might keep speeds closer to the posted limits between McAlister and BonAir.