The Public Safety Commission this week sent recommendations to the City Council to reduce the speed limit on two heavily used roads in San Marino, a development that is likely to please many residents.
The panel also recommended reclassifying six local roads as residential, meaning that they would be exempt from future speed studies and would have 25-mph limits in perpetuity. Additionally, the city will continue to work with traffic engineering firm Iteris to develop possible projects to ease congestion and travel at intersections following a circulation analysis by that firm.
“This subject will continue to play a prominent role in future meetings and there will be opportunity — at the very least, a passionate request — for input from the community for suggestions on how to interpret and address this report,” said commission chair Al Boegh regarding the circulation study.
The two reports discussed by the commission at its Monday meeting considered two separate but key views on traffic. The circulation study conducted by Iteris analyzed peak morning and afternoon traffic patterns at key intersections to identify capacity shortcomings, whereas the traffic survey handled by another consultant, Transtech, took a wider look at typical daily traffic patterns with the primary purpose of determining average speeds.
“They are parallel, separate and complementary work,” Parks and Public Works Director Michael Throne said.
Using Transtech’s recommendations, the city is expected to lower the limit on both stretches of San Marino Avenue from 30 mph to 25. It will also vote on reducing the city’s entire portion of Sierra Madre Boulevard from 40 mph to 35. Although the raw speed data initially justified maintaining the speed limits, engineers still recommended the speed reduction after factoring in the higher-than-usual collision rate on those roads.
The southern portion of San Marino Avenue is particularly problematic for motorists because it takes two lanes of traffic from southbound Sierra Madre Boulevard and quickly merges them into one largely residential lane with a lower speed limit. Notably, no roads were recommended for a speed limit increase.
“That’s very happy news there,” Throne said of the speed study conclusions.
A noteworthy development is that the new speed study will allow the San Marino Police Department to use radar devices to gauge motorists’ speed and back up speeding citations in court. State law requires that jurisdictions have current speed studies to justify speed limit enforcement by radar.
“Otherwise, the chief actually has to have his patrol cars with their calibrated speedometers follow behind scofflaws and that, of course, is really not as efficient,” Throne explained.
Additionally, the city is expected to reclassify the following streets as residential, cementing them permanently as 25 mph roads: Canterbury Road from California Boulevard to San Gabriel Boulevard, divided by Sierra Madre Boulevard; Kenilworth Avenue from Lorain Road to Sierra Madre Boulevard, divided by Huntington Drive; Oak Grove Avenue from Circle Drive to Rosalind Road; and Ridgeway Road from Roanoke Road to Lorain Road.
The circulation study resulted in some unsurprising conclusions — Huntington Drive bears the largest traffic volumes, peaking westbound in the mornings and eastbound in the afternoons. The San Marino Avenue-Lorain Road intersection bears the highest non-signalized volumes at both morning and afternoon peaks.
The study also assigned letter grades to the delay of service at intersections that were studied, with Huntington Drive-Sierra Madre bearing the worst grade because of the minute-long cross time for pedestrians. Several other streets crossing Sierra Madre Boulevard posted poor delay grades, although as an Iteris representative pointed out, that was a result of side street motorists having to wait behind stop signs while traffic flows freely on the main thoroughfare.
“That’s a little caveat to the analysis,” said Deepak Kaushik, association vice president of transportation systems at Iteris.
Throne and Iteris engineers will continue to see how service can be improved at intersections, which typically require more thorough engineering than travel lane portions of roads.
“Intersections are always problematic, because now you start mixing in other modes of transportation, which starts to fool with how efficient you can be,” Throne explained.
The full reports can be viewed at cityofsanmarino.org, where residents can also access the audio recording of this discussion.
Commission Urges Lower Speed Limits on Two Busy Roads
