City staff presented Jan. 6 a design to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety on a roughly half-mile segment of Paseo del Norte between Palomar Airport Road and Camino del Parque and solicited feedback from the Traffic Safety and Mobility Commission.

Senior engineer Miriam James and associate engineer Cindy Pham said the project responds to the city’s Local Roadway Safety Plan and is funded by a Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) grant. Staff said the award covers $591,600 for design and construction to implement countermeasures identified in the safety plan.

Key elements of the plan include a midblock high-visibility crosswalk near the former Tip Top B/Motel 6 location, paired with a rectangular rapid-flashing beacon (RRFB) and pedestrian refuge islands in the roadway center to allow pedestrians to cross one direction at a time. The design would also reduce the number of vehicle travel lanes from four to two through the improvement segment; the spared lane width would be repurposed to widen the bike lanes from roughly 5 feet to 8 feet with an added 8-foot buffer to separate cyclists from travel lanes. Green pavement markings would be added at conflict zones.

Staff presented capacity analysis using 2022 traffic counts and the Highway Capacity Manual methodology. The analysis indicated the segment’s peak-hour capacity would drop slightly under the lane reduction scenario but would continue to operate at Level of Service C for both AM and PM peak hours; staff said the lane reduction would not degrade intersection capacity at Palomar Airport Road because the lane reduction would not extend to the signalized intersection.

Commissioners asked detailed questions about lane widths, the two-way left-turn lane, and whether bicycle crashes had been recorded in the data set. Staff said they could provide bicycle-crash counts from the Local Roadway Safety Plan; John Kim, city traffic engineer, noted the 10-foot two-way left-turn lane width has been a standard in past city practice and that staff were comfortable with it but would examine narrowing alternatives like 10.5-foot vehicle lanes if commissioners preferred.

One public commenter, David Pierce, supported the plan and urged additional physical protections for cyclists in other locations. He said narrowing the roadway and adding refuge islands and markings would help slow traffic and improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Next steps staff described: update plans based on commission feedback, present final plans back to the commission, then forward a recommendation to City Council to seek authorization to bid for construction.