Carlsbad is pumping the brakes on installing five proposed traffic circles in the Barrio neighborhood.
The project was advanced at the City Council meeting in March, but the item was pulled from the consent agenda at the June 24 meeting over parking concerns. The council directed staff at that meeting to gather feedback from residents and develop alternative traffic calming measures.
The Village and Barrio Master Plan, approved in 2019, calls for the addition of traffic circles and other calming measures to reduce speeding. But transportation director and city engineer Tom Frank said a lot has changed since then.
“Public views have changed. State laws in regards to housing have changed, and then — also — state laws in regards to parking have changed with the new daylight law," he said. "So, considering all the recent changes, the City Council felt it was appropriate to go back out and solicit additional public input.”
California's "Daylighting" law, which took effect on Jan.1, prohibits parking within 20 feet of any marked or unmarked crosswalk. The five traffic circles approved for the Barrio neighborhood will result in the loss of 27 parking spots, plus an additional 11 spots because of the new state law.
That doesn't sit well with Thomas Morgan, who lives in an apartment complex at the corner of Jefferson Street and Pine Avenue, where one of the proposed traffic circles is planned. He said parking is already tough as it is.
"People are in businesses and stuff around here. So I got to walk to my place already," he said. "It'd be just another headache.”
Morgan said traffic circles aren't as safe as city engineers claim, mainly because drivers don't know how to use them.
“This is not France. This is, you know, California. People don't yield," he said. "The (traffic circle) down there (on Jefferson Street and Chestnut Avenue), I slid through that in a rainstorm. Scared me to death.”
Nearby Encinitas is already rethinking traffic circles after an increase in accidents at a relatively new roundabout on El Portal Street.
The City Council will discuss the issue at its July 29 meeting, but there's a time crunch. The contractor bids to build these traffic circles are set to expire on Aug. 5. In addition, federal funding for the project needs to be allocated by September, or else the city is at risk of losing it, Frank said.
"We are working with our Caltrans, SANDAG and federal partners to see what leeway we have to reappropriate or reshift that funding to other projects if needed," he said.
Federal funding accounts for $4 million of the $5.6 million slated for the traffic circles.
According to the city, so far, public feedback is evenly split between those in favor of and against traffic circles. The city is taking feedback online at carlsbadca.gov/departments/public-works/projects/traffic-circles/barrio-traffic-calming-feedback.
