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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1986-11-03; Traffic Safety Commission; ; Multiple Requests for Tamarack - Birchwood Circle east to El Camino RealI .I ICITY OF CARLSBAD TRAFFIC SAFETY COMMISSION COMMISSION REPORT OF: November 3, 1986 ITEM NO.D-4 LOCATION: Tamarack Avenue -Birchwood Circle east to El Camino Real INITIATED BY: Elliott Mehrbach, 4667 Coral wood Circle, Carlsbad, CA BACKGROUND: Mr. Mehrbach has written a letter (attached) with the following requests that were not addressed by the Traffic Safety Commission at the meeting of October 6, 1986: 1. Sight distance restriction looking westerly when exiting Palisades Drive onto Tamarack Avenue. Need to eliminate restrict io.n. 2. Speeding cars on Tamarack Avenue need to be slowed down. 3. Stop signs need to be installed on Tamarack Birchwood Circle and on Tamarack Avenue at Drive creating a four-way stop. Avenue at Palisades 4. Extend red curb on northwest corner of Palisades Drive/ 5. DATA: Tamarack Avenue intersection. Traffic signal at El to have a left turn traffic. Camino phase Real/Tamarack Avenue needs added for Tamarack Avenue Motorists exiting Palisades Drive have a sight distance restriction when looking westerly on Tamarack Avenue. This is due to Palisades Drive being located on the inside portion of a horizontal curve for Tamarack Avenue and also a growth of shrubs near the northeasterly corner of the East Pointe TRAFFIC SAFETY COMMISSION COMMISSION REPORT OF: November 3, 1986 Continued Avenue/Tamarack Avenue intersection. on October 22, 1986 thus providing distance. ITEM NO.D-4 The shrubs were trimmed an increase in the sight Tamarack Avenue is designated a Secondary Arterial along this segment of the roadway and has a posteq speed limit of 35 miles per hour. Due to the steep downgrade (10%), cars can easily attain a speed in excess of the speed limit. The Police Department should continue to enforce the speed limit on this segment of the roadway. The purpose of a stop sign is to assign right-of-way. When traffic volumes are low on the side streets, a four-way stop is a very inefficient traffic control device. Warrants are not met to install stop signs on Tamarack Avenue to create a four-way stop at the intersections of Birchwood Circle and Palisades Drive. Red curb painted on Palisades Drive at the Tamarack Avenue intersection is of sufficient length to discourage parking and not restrict the sight distance of a stopped vehicle waiting to turn onto Tamarach Avenue. Extending the red curb would only reduce available parking on this side of the street. At this time, a separate phase for protected left turn traffic from Tamarack Avenue to El Camino Real is not required. As a rule, the number of phases to be provided by a signal should be held to a minimum. This is because each additional phase reduces green time per hour available to other phases and it may increase delay due to additional vehicle starts, additional vehicle change (yellow) intervals and longer cycles. A review of existing traffic conditions, delay, volumes and left turn movement accidents indicates that left turn phasing should not be implemented at this time. Staff will continue to monitor the intersection and as traffic volumes increase, the left turn phasing can be considered. TRAFFIC SAFETY COMMISSION COMMISSION REPORT OF: November 3, 1986 Continued ITEM NO.D-4 RECOMMENDATION: The Traffic Safety Coordinating Committee recommends the following: 1. The Palisades Point Homeowners Association should continue to keep the shrubs trimmed to provide sight distance along Tamarack Avenue. 2. The Police Department should continue to enforce the speed limit on Tamarack Avenue. 3. Stop sign warrants are not met and should not be installed on Tamarack Avenue. 4. The existing red curb on Palisades Drive and existing traffic signal phasing should remain as is. No changes are required at this time. NECESSARY COUNCIL ACTION: An ordinance will be Council if the stop sign require Council action. required for adoption by the City is recommended. Other items do not Traffic and Safety Commission City of Carlsbad City Hall Elm Avenue Carlsbad, California 92008 Dear Commission Members, September 18, RECEIVED 1986 SEP 191986 CITY OF CARLSBAD DEVELOP. PROC. SERV. DIV. SubJect:-1l Palisades Drive One side parking 2) Tamarack Avenue Safety near Palisades Parking on or,e side of Palisades Drive from Tamarack north to the point where Palisades Drive widens to 46 feet from 32 feet is heartily endorsed by the undersigned and members of Carlsbad Palisades Homeowners Association. Carlsbad Palisades is a group of 113 homes that border the west side of El Camino Real on both sid1¥s of Tamarack Avenue. Fifty-three of these homes border .the east side of Palisades Drive. It should be stressed that the parking be allowed on the west side of Palisades Drive and not on the east side next to the Corarwood and Driftwood Circle entries to Palisades Drive. This is recommended for safety reasons. Entry onto Palisades will be available with much greater traffic visibility if there is NO PARKING on the east side. There is a much greater safety hazard on Tamarack Avenue from Birchwood Circle east to El Camino Real. Instituting NO PARKING on one side of Palisades Drive helps part of this situation. It wi 11 clear up the problem of entry ir,to Palisades Drive from Tamarack. This is presently a hazard due to the fact that there is only room for one car on Palisades when cars are parked on both sides. Coming off Tamarack is dangerous "!her, a car is traveling dowr, Palisades towards the corner. Fast reactions are necessary to stop in time to prevent collisions. One side parking will definitely clear up this problem. The remaining problems are d~te to speeding cars on Tamarack, mainly those goi'r-,g East towards El Camino Real. One bad situation is that of entry onto Tamarack from Palisades Drive. Due to the curvature of the street .and the hilly terrain there is only about 130 feet visibility from the corner of Palisades Drive westerly up the Tamarack hill. (Please see the • attached drawing.) When trying to enter Tamarack, one checks traffic both ways but finds that the downhill traffic suddenly appears around the corner Just when yc•u have found it clear. With many cars exceeding the speed limit, it is a definitely hazardous adventure to enter Tamarack. For cars trying to enter Palisades, Amberwood or Birchwood off Tamarack one has to be very alert and make all kinds of extra signals to keep from being rear-ended by the speeding cars coming down Tamarack Avenue. The situation is magnified at Amberwood because it is so close to El Camino'Real that the following driver thinks the right turn signals are meant for a turn at El Camino and not into Amberwood. Accordingly, it is suggested that a STOP sign be installed on the south side of Tamarack at Birchwood Circle. This will slow the speeding traffic on Tamarack and allevi'ate both above problems, i.e. Tamarack entry and exit. A STOP sign on the North side of Tamarack at Palisades might also be considered, thus making a four-way stop. This side is less of a problem because the cars have not attained high speeds by the time they reach Palisades from El Camino. Several other items.should be considered, in addition to the STOP sign. One is the placing of warning signs on Tamara·ck to warn of the approaching stop. Second is the extension of the red, NO PARKING zone on the west side of Palisades at the Tamarack corner. This will ensure adequate visibility, up the Tamarack hill, unhampered by parked cars. It is also recommended that no high growths be allowed along the north side of Tamarack to the west of Palisades Drive. This will also help the visibility. Some concern turn traffic both east and has also been expressed about light coming off Tamarack· onto west direct ions. the lack of a El Camino Real left from Thank you for your consideration on these matters. It is strongly believed that implementation of these measures will prevent a serious accident from happening. Sincerely yours, Elliott Mehrbach, President Carlsbad Palisades Horneowners Association er,c. Map of Tarnarack/Pal isades corner cc Michael Schertzer, President Palisades Point Homeowners Association Robb Donath Lindsay Management Services 4667 Coralwood Circle Carlsbad, California 92008 (619)-434-4391 r ' ~ ')( I-= ::)_ ti. a. 0 (I_ rf) st- .301 S S lflL __.--,___.. -.J /'I I ?I ?J'dd O ('I \N3;~-a·o~ N f'J01..L?3 s. ~ .:3_J__ • af\V ';7,-:::-~c1v W\;J-J. / -;~_rf\ ,lier II) 0 ,.,,-1 e:i. c,.