Tomorrow: Speak Up for Lower Speed Limits on Montezuma Road To Improve Safety for All

Tomorrow’s the College Area Community Council Meeting will begin with a feature presentation by Brian Genovese, Senior Traffic Engineer, Multiple Modal Program, Transportation Engineering Operations Division, City of San Diego.

Our main ask is to ask the city to reduce the speed limit on Montezuma Road in order to make the road safe for all users, by building protected bicycle facilities such as cycle tracks to tame the traffic on Montezuma Road.

When: Tomorrow (November 14th, 2012) at 7pm
Where: College Rolando Library
How to get there: If you want to ride to the meeting location, meet us after work at Blind Lady Ale House and we will ride to College Rolando Library doing our best to avoid high speed Montezuma Road to get to the meeting location. We leave Blind Lady at 6pm. RSVP here.
If you want to get there on your own, plan on being at the library and seated by 7pm as the presentation is scheduled to begin at the very beginning.

The area that the Community Council oversees can be seen in this map which covers Montezuma Road between Fairmount Avenue and the road slightly east of 70th Street.


View College Area Map in a larger map

As of today the speed limit on Montezuma ranges from 50 mph at Fairmount Avenue to 35 mph as one heads east. Given that there is a speedy thoroughfare designed for drivers exclusively (I-8) that already exists less than a mile north of Montezuma Road – there is absolutely no reason for Montezuma Road to also serve as a high speed thoroughfare for drivers.

Montezuma Road with the I-8 (in blue) to the North.

The speeding issue is also substantiated by the San Diego Police Department who handed out over a tenth of the speeding tickets at College Avenue between El Cajon Boulevard and Montezuma Road.

We are calling for protected bicycle facilities that are physically separated from vehicular traffic. Additional protection will result in not only narrowing the vehicular travel lane, but also offer additional protection to bicycle riders. When we last discussed this issue, we quoted Genovese who stated,

As you may have heard, we are working on a corridor study that will include recommended low-cost-low-effort early action treatments. Separated cycle tracks or raised bike lanes will be considered but will likely fall into the category of higher-cost-higher-effort treatments.

In Voice of San Diego’s analysis of low income communities, Montezuma Road also lies in the section of the city that has a high percentage of low income residents. Given our review of where protected bicycle facilities have been implemented in the city of San Diego over the last decade, this community is long over due not only for safety improvements but also for protected bicycle facilities that benefit the community.

If you cannot make it to the meeting, please send an email to the Chair of the College Area Community Council, Doug Case: doug.case@sdsu.edu stating the following:

As a bicycle rider who wants safe thoroughfares for all road users, I respectfully ask that the Council vote to support protected bicycle facilities such as cycle tracks  on Montezuma Road.

 

Sincerely,

Your Name

Update: A reader pointed out that San Diego already has a precedence for adding protection for bicycle riders in order to lower speed limits and traffic calm high speed roadways. The main reason we are requesting protected bicycle facilities is to further narrow the travel lane and thus trigger a speed survey that we hope will result in a lower speed limit along Montezuma Road.