The North Bay/ Peninsula Traffic Task Force reconvened after a two-year recess on March 15 to discuss the many and varied traffic concerns in Midway. The task force will continue to meet quarterly with an emphasis on small, inexpensive fixes that collectively improve the flow of traffic through one of San Diego’s most congested areas.
City Councilman Kevin Faulconer asked Joe Mannino, task force chair and North Bay Association executive director, to reorganize the group after taking office last January.
“My job, as I see it, is to help this task force cut through red tape at the city and to move, and move quickly,” Faulconer said. “It’s not enough to plan things. We are eager to push them through.”
Both Faulconer and Mannino participated in the previous task force, which disbanded in May 2004 after a handful of accomplishments.
There remains a large docket of work to tackle, which will surely grow larger with each meeting.
“[Traffic] is a part of everybody’s life, which creates an element of stress and adds unnecessary time to our commutes,” Mannino said. “These [projects] are things we can do for a small amount of money that make a big difference in quality of life.”
The task force is composed of representatives from community organizations, including the Midway Planning and Advisory Committee, Old Town Chamber of Commerce, Old Town Business Improvement District, Point Loma Association, Peninsula Planning Group and Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. Engineering and Capital Projects Department Director Patti Boekamp and North Bay Redevelopment Agency Project Manager Laura Gates represented the city.
“It’s critical to have key decision makers attend the meetings,” Mannino said of the city’s participation.
At the meeting, the top traffic priorities of each organization were discussed and annotated by Boekamp, who pointed out which would be feasible and which would not due to time and money.
“They run a gamut,” Boekamp said of the suggestions. The most decidedly problematic intersection discussed was Rosecrans Street and Sports Arena Boulevard, which also connects with Camino del Rio West.
“Rosecrans starts off bad and goes to levels of horribleness,” said Greg Robinson of the Peninsula Planning Group.
Other priorities included increasing the left turn pocket on northbound Rosecrans Street at Midway Drive, prohibiting left turns from Camino del Rio West onto Moore Street in front of exiting Interstate 5 traffic, adding a driveway from Camino del Rio West to a group of hard-to-access businesses, and adding a left turn lane for I-5 traffic at the Old Town exit bridge.
According to Maxx Stalheim, a senior planner for the city, intersections are given a Level of Service (LOS) rating from “A” to “F,” with a “D” or better being the city’s goal for urbanized areas.
“The existing traffic in Midway, a lot of those intersections are already operating at an LOS “F,” about as bad as you can get,” Stalheim said.
Midway’s congestion has been attributed to traffic exiting the freeways to gain access to the greater peninsula, which has few other ways in and out. Boekamp said that traffic studies have shown the area to have erratic patterns due to residential, regional and commercial trips.
“It’s a long cul-de-sac, so everybody who goes in has to come back out,” Boekamp said of Midway. “We don’t have a lot of those kinds of situations [in San Diego].”
Stalheim attributes the poor traffic flow to the variety of land uses.
“Regional shopping centers, big box centers and commercial activity are the biggest generators of traffic [in Midway],” he said.
Although not a new idea, the task force discussed an interchange from I-5 South to Interstate-8 West that would redirect peninsula traffic away from Midway. Currently, southbound traffic from I-5 can only get to Point Loma directly by exiting at Rosecrans Street. If an interchange were created, cars could take the I-8 West and exit at Sports Arena Boulevard/ Midway Drive or continue to Ocean Beach and access other parts of the peninsula from Nimitz or Sunset Cliffs Boulevards.
In 2002, it was estimated that the highway interchange would cost $90 million and take five years or more to complete. Despite the task force’s implied focus on small, inexpensive projects, Mannino recognizes the importance of voicing the community’s desire to see the larger ones realized.
“These are the types of projects that are going to require a continuity of community support,” he said.
The interchange is already included in the Midway/ Pacific Highway Corridor Community Plan, although money seems to be the primary holdup.
The city’s Planning Department is largely responsible for addressing long-term traffic and growth in a comprehensive manner. While re-striping lanes and adding stoplights are viable task force projects that alleviate minor traffic woes, the community plan is the key to predicting and avoiding future traffic problems resulting from development.
Midway’s community plan was adopted in 1991 and updated in 1999. The City Council recently approved one amendment and more are in the works to extend the life of the plan, which is halfway to its expiration date.
“Typically when we create a community plan, we are trying to look at a 20-year development period,” Stalheim said. “[The Midway plan] is relatively current, but it definitely needs some updating.”
In mid-March, Faulconer and the rest of the council voted to allow a mixed-use housing project that emphasizes smart growth and transit-oriented development. Stella at Five Points, a group of 83 dwelling units, will be constructed within 500 feet of the Washington Street Trolley stop and India Street Commercial District. The project required a community plan amendment to rezone the area from industrial to high density residential, and is an example of how the city is addressing traffic concerns on a larger scale.
Additionally, the council has recommended five changes to Midway’s plan for which the community planning group is currently drafting land uses, among them a new open space concept that links public bike and walk ways with more pedestrian friendly development and more urban mixed-use integrating commercial and residential uses of buildings near transit routes. A completed draft is anticipated later this year, at which time a public hearing process will begin.
In the meantime, Faulconer’s office is investigating traffic calming methods that can be applied to residential areas of concern. Techniques, such as traffic circles and speed bumps, do not require much construction and are intended to slow cars that use neighborhood streets as shortcuts around the main artery of congestion.
The traffic task force is scheduled to meet quarterly. However, Faulconer suggested that the group assemble in six weeks to look into an uncompleted study of Midway traffic by Meyer, Mohaddes Associates. He called for the prompt reunion after discovering that the consultant might have as much as $20,000 in unused funds. The consultants will present the progress of their study and plans for the remaining funds to the group in late April.