If you use Robles Avenue during your daily commute, traffic changes approved in a 3-to-2 vote by the San Marino City Council on Oct. 27 could impact you.
The approved changes include paint markers to prevent drivers from making an eastbound left turn onto Robles Ave. and from crossing Sierra Madre Blvd. through the Robles Ave. median. According to the city’s Oct. 27 agenda, eastbound right turns and all westbound movements would still be allowed. The changes also include striping edge lines on Sierra Madre Blvd. starting from San Marino Blvd. to California Blvd.
The approved safety measures recommended by the Parks & Public Works Director/City Engineer, Traffic Engineer Ruth Smith for Robles Avenue and Sierra Madre Blvd. are aimed at increasing sight distance and slowing drivers to reduce the amount of serious accidents in the intersection.
According to data collected by the Traffic Commission, there have been at least 4 traffic collisions this year in addition to 13 traffic collisions over the past 5 years. Eleven, or 85 percent, of the incidents were broadside with seven involving eastbound vehicles. Two percent were rear-end incidents involving vehicles traveling southbound and turning left.
“It’s easy to see why people are having these collisions, they simply don’t have enough time to stop once they see each other,” said Smith, the traffic engineer who put together the intersection’s traffic plan. “You need 495 feet to properly see.”
Trees and bushes were found to significantly obscure sight, making it so eastbound drivers have less than half the amount of feet needed to see southbound traffic. Those in the median turning eastbound also had blocked views of oncoming traffic with the farthest visible vehicle spotted 450 feet away through trees, according to a visual analysis by the commission presented at the meeting.
A secondary cause of the high collision rate was speeding drivers on Sierra Madre Blvd. Smith said the edge line striping on Sierra Madre Blvd. will reduce speeds because people tend to be concerned about wandering out of lanes. The striping will reduce the width of the travel lanes to 11 or 12 feet, with the yellow edge lines moving the lane out 2 to 3 feet from the median.
Citizens and councilmembers in attendance at the Friday morning meeting expressed concern over both the current danger on the roadway as well as the possible continuance of the problem and increased traffic for roads parallel to Sierra Madre.
“I personally make left-hand turns on this street about 3 times a week, and I think Kenilworth will be worse,” Councilman Steven Huang said.
Councilman Steve Talt expressed his discomfort over the changes and called for “taking baby steps.”
“I don’t like the striping at this time, if we do anything, it needs to be very temporary,” he said.
Parks and Public Works Director Michael Throne explained that whether the proposed paint striping is permanent or temporary, it will cost the same amount of $53,000 for the “Sierra Madre Boulevard and Robles Avenue Striping Project.”
The total for the projects including the “Robles Intersection Improvements Project,” is $59,000 in reappropriated funds from the Street Rehabilitation project that would have gone unused.
Ultimately, Councilman Allan Yung moved to approve the measure, calling it seemingly “an answer to a problem.”
“We can study traffic impaction later,” Yung added.
Councilmembers Huang and Talt voted against the proposal while Richard Ward, Yung and Mayor Richard Sun voted in favor.
