SALINAS — At its Oct. 9 meeting, the Salinas Traffic and Transportation Commission received an informational report on the closure of the right‑turn slip lane at Sherwood Drive and East Rossi Street and on ongoing efforts to reduce congestion and improve safety at the intersection.

City staff told the commission the slip‑lane closure was installed as part of a pavement‑maintenance project that leveraged competitive regional funding to add pedestrian and bicycle improvements. The city applied to a Transportation Agency for Monterey County (TAMC) competitive program that uses Regional Surface Transportation Program (RSTP) funds for Complete Streets projects and was awarded $152,000 for pedestrian and bicycle safety work. Staff said the delineators that currently close the slip lane were placed in June 2022 during the pavement project and that the intersection was expected to operate at an “acceptable level of service” after optimizations.

The item drew questions from commissioners about whether the closure is increasing congestion and whether physical changes — for example removing trees, changing curb geometry, or adding barriers — would reduce vehicle maneuvers that pull across a nearby gravel lot. Staff said addressing those options requires additional investigation because utilities and property access (including a PG&E parcel adjacent to the crossing) constrain what the city can change. Staff also said the city will evaluate whether hardening the lot edges or adding barriers is feasible.

Staff described a separate mitigation step: the city applied for and is working with the Monterey Bay Air Resources District (MBARD) on funding for an adaptive traffic‑control system along the Front Street–Sherwood corridor. The planned system covers five signalized intersections from East San Luis Street at Front Street north to Sherwood at East Rossi. Staff said the vendor named in the meeting, “Embard,” has granted an extension while the city continues to analyze traffic volumes and optimize signal timing; once parameters are set the adaptive software would adjust timing to prioritize arriving platoons of vehicles.

Monterey‑Salinas Transit representative Michelle Overmyer told the commission MST is the public transit operator for the city and urged the commission to consider all users when evaluating the intersection. Overmyer said MST restored service on Line 46 in December 2022 after the slip‑lane closure and that the agency switched to a smaller cutaway bus because its 40‑foot vehicle could not reliably make the right turn through the modified geometry. She reported that the route carries about nine passengers per hour and runs through the intersection twice an hour.

A member of the public, Eloise Shim, used the meeting’s public‑comment period to raise broader safety concerns on Lincoln and Central avenues and called for more aggressive law‑enforcement of reckless driving. “The police are not citing people for reckless driving,” Shim said, adding that some drivers exceed posted speeds and that she had a near collision at Central and Lincoln.

Staff told the commission it had reviewed collision records and found one or two collisions involving a bicycle or pedestrian reported after the slip‑lane closure; staff did not provide identifying specifics about those collisions at the meeting.

Commissioners discussed several mitigation ideas: adjusting signal timing through the adaptive system, removing vegetation or utilities where feasible, restriping nearby approaches, and installing physical barriers to prevent vehicles from crossing a gravel lot that some drivers use to shortcut the intersection. One commissioner asked staff to assess the feasibility of k‑rails or other hardening, and staff said it would evaluate access points and property/utility constraints and report back.

Because the Sherwood Drive item was presented as informational, the commission took no motion or formal vote on the closure itself. The commission did, earlier in the meeting, approve the consent agenda item to adopt minutes for Sept. 11 (ID 25442) by roll call vote.

Staff said the city will continue to monitor the intersection after adaptive‑signal implementation and follow up on potential low‑cost and capital improvements guided by the Active Transportation Plan and related planning documents. The commission asked staff to continue work on signal optimization and to return with feasibility findings for physical hardening and any necessary coordination with PG&E or other property owners.