Morro Bay’s road safety plan has been released for public comment and one public meeting on the document has already been held.
The City of Morro Bay announced Dec. 10 that its “Local Roadway Safety Plan” or LRSP, had been posted on its website and public comments were being taken now. (See: www.morrobayca.gov/1058/Local-Roadway-Safety-Plan-LRSP to review the plan.)
The City got a grant from Caltrans to conduct the study, hiring consultants, Kimley-Horn, to work with City staff, advisory boards, the public and representatives from other public agencies, on the plan.
Basically, the LRSP identifies, analyses and develops ways to improve road safety on the City’s network of roads, about 33 miles of them within the City Limits. Part of this is to analyze crash data to find locations in town that have high incidents of car crashes and to look at how various physical barriers “inhibit safety for all roadway users.” A previous crash data analysis, done as part of a project to build a roundabout at Main Street and Hwy 41, identified that intersection as having the highest number of crashes of anywhere in the city.
It’s driven by “the Four E’s of Safety” — engineering, enforcement, education and emergency response — “to encourage safer driver behavior and better severity outcomes.”
According to the plan summary, goals of the LSRP include:
• Identify areas with a high risk for crashes;
• Illustrate the value of a comprehensive safety program and the systemic process;
• Plan future safety improvements for near-, mid- and long-term; and,
• Define safety projects for HSIP and other program funding consideration.
Among the many safety issues the plan developed a half dozen to emphasize: speeding; cut-through traffic; drivers ignoring signals and stop signs; lighting; pedestrians; and bicycles.
Readers can see the draft plan, which was discussed by the Public Works Advisory Board at its last meeting, at: www.morrobayca.gov/1058/Local-Roadway-Safety-Plan-LRSP. Comments on the plan can be emailed to: LRSP@morrobayca.gov.
The plan, once PWAB is done with it, would go to the City Council for adoption and would serve as a guide for the staff to prioritize projects that would improve road safety in town and to seek funding to pay for it.
