Carlsbad council approves Sage Creek High Safe Routes to School plan

The Carlsbad City Council unanimously adopted a resolution approving the Sage Creek High School Safe Routes to School plan, city staff said at the meeting. The plan packages near-term signing and striping, shared two-way bike/pedestrian paths, signal-timing changes and longer-term infrastructure projects intended to improve safe walking and biking access to the campus.

City transportation staff told the council the plan targets two busy arterials that bound the school — College Boulevard and Cannon Road — and focuses on reducing conflicts between students on bikes and vehicles during peak drop-off and pick-up hours. "This plan is intended to promote students' ability to walk and bike to school," said Nathan Schmidt, the city's transportation planning and mobility manager.

The city described the student population at Sage Creek as about 1,400; staff estimated roughly 85% of students travel to school by vehicle and about 8% bike on typical days — which staff said represents about 120 students. "Eight percent sounds like a small number. But with the large student population, that comes out to around a 120 students on a given day," said Nick Gorman, an associate engineer.

Near-term measures the council approved include upgraded crosswalks at the school frontage, moving on-campus bike routes to separate sidewalks, widened sidewalks and bike-lane buffers, and signal modifications that add pedestrian phases and restrict right turns on red during those phases. Staff told the council the plan also recommends a shared two-way path on the north side of Bobcat Boulevard, a concrete shared path along portions of Cannon Road and College Boulevard, and a bike ramp near El Camino Real to allow bicyclists to mount the sidewalk and avoid a busy turning movement.

Staff estimated the combined cost of the recommended short- and some medium-term projects at about $3.4 million to $3.8 million. Schmidt said near-term signing and striping work could be funded through available grant money and that sidewalk funds already identified for parts of College Boulevard could be repurposed and widened to meet shared-path standards. He told the council the timeline for implementing short-term striping and signing is roughly one to two years, given the traffic-control planning required for the high-volume corridors.

A parent who addressed the council during public comment urged approval. "In the first six weeks of school, 10 children were struck on their e-bikes by vehicles," said Christina McGoldrick, a Sage Creek parent who said she supports the proposal. She commended staff and first-responder efforts and urged continued enforcement until engineering changes are built.

Councilmembers praised the outreach staff conducted with the PTA, principal and Traffic Safety and Mobility Commission, which unanimously recommended the plan to council. Several members asked staff to seek ways to accelerate near-term elements and to continue education and closer cooperation with the school while construction proceeds.

The council voted to adopt the resolution by voice vote; the motion passed unanimously.