Leucadia 101 Main Street Doesn’t Know the Facts About Streetscape
Relatively few Leucadia 101 merchants and property owners are members of the Leucadia 101 Main Street Association (L101). It’s a chamber of commerce in disguise. The City Council gives the group $30,000 of taxpayer money every year because it can’t support itself.
L101 recently published an attack on an anti-Leucadia 101 Streetscape flyer distributed in the neighborhoods by volunteers. Quotes from the L101 attack are below, followed by the facts.
L101: “After construction, Hwy 101 will be a 3 lane highway.”
Fact: According to the Baker traffic study summary, 85 percent of the 2.4-mile highway would be two lanes, and 15 percent would be four lanes.
L101: “There will most likely only be 4 roundabouts through the corridor because La Costa Ave roundabout and ‘New Road’ roundabout will not be constructed if the Encinitas Beach Resort stays on track to begin construction this fall.”
Fact: The city will do its best to get the La Costa Ave and New Road roundabouts, as opposed to the Encinitas Beach Resort’s preference. Whether there are six or four roundabouts, all but one would be packed into 8/10 mile at the north end, thereby canceling the supposed benefits for the 2.4-mile corridor.
L101: “Bird Rock La Jolla’s Streetscape project gives us very good insight into how Leucadia’s Streetscape will function. After construction, Bird Rock saw average daily trips decrease from 21,000-24,000 to 19,500. Bird Rock was a more heavily used corridor than ours.”
Fact: Bird Rock is wholly unlike Leucadia 101. Bird Rock is roundabouts at five successive intersections in one-half mile. Leucadia 101 is all but one roundabout stuffed into 8/10 mile at the north end of a 2.4-mile corridor. Bird Rock has no railroad tracks or freeway nearby. Bird Rock has no extremely long traffic light to back up traffic for up to 1.4 miles. Bird Rock has businesses, residences and parking on both sides of the street. Leucadia 101 is what the Coastal Commission calls the first public road from La Costa Ave to Grandview St. La Jolla Blvd in the Bird Rock area is not the first public road.
L101: “A major goal of the Streetscape project is to alleviate congestion caused by cut-through traffic and improve auto circulation for residents, beach goers and patrons of Leucadia’s small businesses.”
Fact: It’s impossible to restrict “cut-through traffic” without restricting all traffic. Shrinking the highway to two narrowed lanes for 85 percent of its length and stuffing the north end with roundabouts would make the current congestion much worse.
L101: “A reduction in average daily trips bypassing the I-5 will mean fewer cars on Hwy 101 overall. Traffic calming measures on Hwy 101 are designed to reduce speeds of cars entering neighborhoods and dictate improved driver behavior.”
Fact: Streetscape is designed to make driving 101 harder. That’s how it intends to divert drivers to the freeway. But what it would actually do is increase the neighborhood diversions that already happen. Those increases would go to Vulcan, Neptune and the adjacent side streets.
L101: “Beach access is improved with safer Hwy 101 crossings for east-side residents and visitors. Coupled with rail corridor parking pods and the El Portal Rail Undercross, beach access, parking and safety is vastly enhanced.”
Fact: Streetscape wouldn’t improve or increase access from east of 101. Aside from people who are already west of 101, the overwhelming majority of visitors and beachgoers come from the north. As they enter the corridor, they would be immediately squeezed into one narrowed southbound lane and forced through five (maybe three) roundabouts. Highway 101 is the first public road from La Costa Ave to Grandview St and the principal route to the beaches and everything else in Leucadia. By restricting 101, Streetscape would restrict beach access.
Fact: Streetscape doesn’t include the planned El Portal rail undercrossing.
Fact: By lining the east side of 101 with a sidewalk, Streetscape would confine east side parking to the proposed pods. That would actually reduce parking capacity because east side parking is spread through the corridor and often outnumbers the spaces in the proposed pods.
L101: “Existing emergency response times to northern portions of Leucadia are currently not meeting standards (80% of calls reached in 5 min). To address this, the city of Encinitas has funded a pilot for an emergency response staging area in north Leucadia to meet their goals. Emergency response time to existing problem areas will be reduced and service improved with this measure. Park assist and bike lanes add room for cars to move off the road when ambulances need to return southbound to deliver victims to Scripps. Not to mention, roundabouts decrease auto accidents by 90%.”
Fact: The Environmental Impact Report revealed that shrinking 101 and stuffing it with roundabouts would increase response times that are already too slow. Streetscape would make the existing problem worse. The city committed $909,000 to relieve the problem for the first two years.
Fact: On a four-lane Highway 101, drivers move to the right lane to let emergency vehicles pass in the left lane. Streetscape adds no advantage to that.
Fact: Little roundabouts at T intersections don’t decrease auto accidents by 90 percent. Those stats are for big roundabouts at four-way intersections.
L101: Streetscape is safe for bicyclists.
Fact: The roundabouts would force cyclists out of the bike lane onto the sidewalk, across the crosswalk and back onto the bike lane. Otherwise, cyclists would have to ride in the roundabouts with cars and trucks.
— Doug Fiske
