Traffic Issues, Barron Park Elementary School, Analysis by Traffic Committee Chair, Barron Park (Neighborhood) Association

Author: Doug Moran

Introduction

Ventura students coming to BPES: predictable problems in the section between El Camino and La Donna.

Compass Directions

• North: towards El Camino
• South: towards Foothill
• East: towards Arastradero
• West: towards Page Mill
• Inbound: from El Camino into neighborhood

Caveats

• Distant memory of childhood pedestrian practices.
• Size differential:
  • Certain tree obstructions may pose less problems for shorter, smaller people
  • Taller people have less problem seeing and being seen over other obstacles (for example, parked cars)
• Walk alone, paying attention to traffic, rather than in a group
• Willing to pause for gap in traffic before walking in traffic lane. Having to wait is common occurrence in segments discussed here.

Traffic Lights on El Camino

• Los Robles
• Curtner
• Matadero/Margarita

Routes from El Camino: Evaluation

• Assumptions:
  • Students walking facing traffic
  • Mix of pedestrians and bicyclists
  • Ignoring skateboards and other forms (for Elementary School)
• Los Robles
  • Good route, already used for students going to Juana Briones
  • Problem: longer route - requires backtracking - most students in Ventura neighborhood live on Ventura Avenue and west.
  • Not a typical Barron Park Street: section from El Camino to Laguna is much wider than most: the section from El Camino to La Donna is wide enough to accommodate marked bike lanes, and the section from La Donna to Laguna has a wide paved shoulder.
• Military Way: Unacceptable route
  • Passes by liquor stores, related loiterers and attendant problems
  • Deeply shaded, very narrow curving streets with much on-street parking
  • Unnatural path
    • If crossing at Los Robles: should continue to use Los Robles
    • If crossing at Curtner: would have to backtrack
• Barron Avenue (see below)
• Kendall Avenue (see below)
• Matadero Avenue (see below)

General Situation on Barron Park Streets

• No sidewalks, no bikelanes, no marked shoulders.
• Narrow, unpaved shoulders (often the "shoulder" is unofficial: it is simply the dirt strip between the pavement and the beginning of the vegetation).
• Puddles on shoulders extending well into traffic lane (limited drainage)
• On-street parking. Pedestrians must walk in traffic lanes around parked cars.
  Most streets have intermittent parking, thus pedestrians are walking along shoulder and occasionally popping out into the traffic lanes to get around the parked cars.
• Fences, hedges and other vegetation often tightly bound the shoulder and sometimes extend over the shoulder.
  Thus, when the path along the shoulder is obstructed (puddle, parked vehicle, ...) the pedestrians only real choice is often to walk in the traffic lane.
• Street trees and utility poles are often next to the pavement. The trees especially create pedestrian safety problems because they force pedestrians to step out into the traffic lane to get around them, but until they step out, the pedestrians are obscured by the trees.
• Broken (uneven) edge of pavement:
  • Bicycle riders have to ride more into the traffic lanes
  • Uneven puddling causes pedestrians to take jogs in their paths that are unexpected by drivers.
• Since pedestrians must use the traffic lanes in many segments, they must have "traffic saavy" that can be expected in older children and adults, but probably not in younger children.
  Deciding whether to stay on the pavement or to step off and wait for a vehicle to pass involves
  • Observing the oncoming vehicle for signs that the driver sees you and intends to give you adequate room.
  • Tracking oncoming traffic both in front and behind you to estimate where they will pass each other. If they will pass near where you are, you almost certainly should get off the pavement (because of the narrowness of most Barron Park streets).
    Note: This becomes more difficult in the rainy season when the shoulders are occupied by mud and significant puddles.

Barron Avenue

• General
  • Broad street (relative to Barron Park standards)
  • In-bound automobile traffic for BPES (based on current (Hoover) traffic circulation plan), with outbound traffic on Matadero and Los Robles (which have traffic lights)
    • Morning: Ventura parents bring students to school
    • Afternoon: Parents coming from work to pick up students
• Out-bound students (afternoon)
  • The "Barron Curve" (between Whitsell and La Donna)
    In-bound cars routinely take this curve much too fast. Not only do they wind up on the shoulder, but from time-to-time they crash through the fences. Many adults in the neighborhood avoid this route.
• In-bound students (morning)
  • The "Barron Curve" (between Whitsell and La Donna)
    Less of a problem from out-bound traffic because it is close to a stop sign (at La Donna) so cars do not get up to speed. However, there is very limited visibility through this curve that could be a serious problem if students are walking in the traffic lane, and especially if they are not walking in single file (I have never seen children of that age keep in single file).

Kendall Avenue

• El Camino to Whitsell
  • General
    • Curve: visibility problem
    • Narrow street with substantial curbside parking
      • Exacerbates visibility problems
      • Segment in curve is often effectively single-lane
      • Effect on dynamics of group containing both pedestrian and bicyclists?
    • Problems with traffic turning off El Camino
      • Southbound: very limited visibility around corner
      • Northbound: crossing three lanes of traffic (although there is often a good gap created by traffic light at Matadero): driver is focused on that traffic rather than any pedestrians that might be on Kendall.
    • Sociological/Psychological (primarily male): What is current etiquette for walking through someone else's neighborhood? Rules from another time and another area: don't walk through another neighborhood's population center, and walk along major streets. Kendall has problems with both of these:
      • The apartment building is possible location of large number of children.
      • A narrow, clogged, curving street is not a major street
      Note: this is *not* about gangs, it is about basic group dynamics of (young) males (and to a much lesser extent females).
    • Two-way stop at Whitsell on Kendall. Stop sign on Whitsell at Barron has some influence. Stop sign on Whitsell at Matadero has little impact: no effect on traffic turning onto Whitsell and too far from Kendall for traffic going to Matadero.
  • In-bound students (morning)
    • Negligible sidewalk on east side of street.
    • Sidewalk on west side starts at the apartment building (third property from El Camino) and ends one property from Whitsell.
    • Where to cross to sidewalk??
      • Walk on wrong side of road for stretch?
      • Cross in obstructed-vision area (curve and parked cars)?
  • Out-bound students (afternoon)
    • Similar
• Whitsell to LaDonna to Josina
  • Interaction of Kendall-La Donna Corner and Barron Park Preschool (on south side of La Donna between the discontinuous segments of Kendall)
  • Kendall-La Donna Corner:
    • 90-degree corner where northern segment of Kendall meets La Donna
    • Deceptively sharp turn
    • Deceptively limited visibility
    • Visibility on inside of corner limited by large oak tree, fence (moderately set back from street), and sometimes parked cars
  • Barron Park Preschool: when the Preschool had exceeded its enrollment limits, there were substantial traffic problems:
    • Conflicts between vehicles dropping off children and children walking on the street (some who had been dropped off nearby, other who were coming from nearby locations)
    • Traffic problems related to failure to have/follow reasonable traffic circulation scheme.
    • Traffic problems on the La Donna-Kendall corner
    No major complaints since the Preschool has reduced enrollment to its permitted level (down from mid-40s to mid-20s). Unknown as to what level of additional pedestrian traffic would cause these problems to resurface.

Matadero Avenue

• General
  • Matadero is main access route for western Barron Park. Traffic includes not just residents, but delivery trucks, and construction traffic (workers, equipment and deliveries) for house-building, remodeling and other projects.
  • Matadero also gets a modest amount of adult bicycle traffic.
• El Camino to Whitsell
  • In-bound students (morning)
    • Traffic problems near El Camino
      • Drivers racing to make the light
      • Cars entering from left (hotel)
      • Occasional inbound cars and delivery trucks turning left across outbound traffic for stores between Matadero and Kendall.
      • No marked right-turn lane, no marked shoulder: cars for east-bound El Camino squeeze to the right of cars waiting to turn left (onto west-bound El Camino)
      • Curbside parking between El Camino and the hotel driveway often causes inbound traffic to shift towards the center of the street, which in turn influences outbound traffic to shift towards shoulder.
    • At El Camino: no sidewalk. Configuration is: fence for auto repair shop, parked cars, and then a right turn lane that has a large puddle (deep, wide, and long) on rainy days. On non-puddle days, the traffic lane is uncomfortably close to the parked cars.
    • In front of apartments:
      • intermittent sidewalks
      • Mix of parallel and nose-in parking.
      • For some of the nose-in spaces, the cars extend from fence to traffic lane. Pedestrians must walk in traffic lane to get around these cars.
  • Out-bound students (afternoon)
    • From Whitsell to hotel property there is negligible shoulder: the creek is very close to road and fences and vegetation go right up to the edge of the pavement in much of this stretch.
    • Vegetation strip outside the hotel's fence is not level - often sloping and slippery when wet.
    • Obstructions: trees (mostly younger ones) cause more problems for pedestrians that drivers anticipate.
• Whitsell to Josina
  • In-bound students (morning)
    • Whitsell is a blind intersection. Cars on Whitsell often nose-out through much of the north-bound (outbound) traffic lane in order to see traffic on Matadero.
      Drivers on both Matadero and Whitsell are paying attention to other cars and may well not see pedestrians.
    • Traffic impacts of Josina/Tippawingo intersection (below)
    • Many adults feel uncomfortable walking this segment: Very narrow shoulder, interrupted by street tree.
      Assessment: combination of narrow road, traffic speed, poor visibility, and barriers (fences and impenetrable vegetation) that leave the pedestrian with no escape path.
  • Out-bound students (afternoon)
    • No shoulder immediately across from Josina: blocked by guardrail associated with bridge. Must walk in traffic lane for substantial segment.
      Aside: The BPA has discussed with the City's Traffic Planners about providing a pedestrian passage through this barrier as part of an improvement for pedestrians in the area around the bridge.
      Problem: The various routes through this intersection put children in the traffic lanes for too long a distance, especially in relation to the problem of speeding traffic and limited visibility.
    • No sidewalk: walking in dirt "park" is dubious choice. In rainy season, this park is typically very muddy and full of puddles.
    • Logs that form boundary between street and "park" are likely attractive nuisance for young pedestrians (as a young male, I would walk them as a balance beam, and any group was likely to start jousting on them).
• Josina to Tippawingo
  This is not part of the students' route, but the effects of this intersection extend well into the likely route for students if Matadero were to be used.
  • Traffic entering Matadero from Josina and Tippawingo has very poor visibility (both seeing and being seen). These drivers and those on Matadero tend to be focused on each other, and could easily miss seeing pedestrians.
  • The "left turn" onto Josina from inbound Matadero is a fork, not a regular turn, and drivers tend to take it fast, often to scoot between oncoming traffic on Matadero.
  • The right turn onto Tippawingo from inbound Matadero often has a ripple effect. If there are (unseen) pedestrians on Matadero/Tippawingo, the right turning vehicle often stops in mid-turn, causing any inbound vehicles following it to swing wide. This causes outbound traffic to slide right, which puts them even closer to the shoulder at Josina.
  • Inbound and outbound traffic on Matadero tend to "cheat" on the curve, despite the double yellow line. Consequently, when there is traffic in both directions, one side is often forced to drive to the very right of the traffic lane (where pedestrians would be expected to be walking).
  • The section on Matadero just north of Josina is too narrow for an outbound car to pass comfortably between an inbound car and an inbound adult pedestrian walking on the shoulder. an inbound and outbound car passing My experience (speaker: Doug Moran) is that the outbound driver does best to stop and let the inbound car pass and then pass the pedestrian with a suitable margin.
    Because of the limited visibility on this curve, the driver has to anticipate that this situation might occur and reduce his speed to an appropriate level (my guideline: 20 mph or less). This is not common practice for the traffic on Matadero.
    Note: This situation would be much worse if it was not a single adult pedestrian, but a child or group of children.