Commission forwards speed‑survey updates and AB 43 safety‑corridor requests to City Council

The Salinas Traffic and Transportation Commission on Dec. 12 voted to forward a recommendation to the City Council to adopt the 2024 engineering and traffic surveys establishing posted speed limits for three roadway segments, enabling radar enforcement by the police department.

Jaime Rodriguez, the city’s on‑call traffic engineer, summarized a change in state law — Assembly Bill 43 — that affects how local jurisdictions set posted speeds. "AB 43 allows a city to actually have a posted speed limit below 25 miles per hour outside of just those focused senior community centers or school zones," Rodriguez said, explaining that cities may now designate "safety corridors" with posted speeds lower than the roadway's 85th percentile as long as the jurisdiction documents the public‑safety rationale and follows specified limits (for example, safety corridors may be applied to up to about 40% of city roadways).

Why it matters: Police radar enforcement requires a current engineering and traffic survey that establishes a posted speed limit consistent with state practice. Under the prior 85th‑percentile methodology, some roadway surveys would have required raising posted speeds to match observed driver behavior; AB 43 gives cities discretion to retain lower posted speeds for safety purposes if they document reasons for doing so.

Corridors and survey findings: Staff presented three segments under review: - Sherwood (Market to Bernal): Current posted speed 40 mph; measured 85th‑percentile speed about 48 mph. Staff recommended using AB 43 to retain the 40 mph posting to maintain consistency with adjacent segments. The segment showed about 15 collisions over the past 24 months. - Work Street (Bridal to Sanborn): Current posted speed 35 mph; measured 85th‑percentile ~44 mph. Staff recommended applying AB 43 here as well to keep the posted limit at 35 mph. Crash history cited: ~11 collisions in 24 months. - Skyway Boulevard: Surveyed twice; final results support the current posted speed of 35 mph and a new survey will replace an expired prior survey.

Rodriguez summarized other AB 43 effects cited in the staff presentation: survey longevity can be extended (surveys may be preserved up to 14 years under the new provisions), and safety corridor designation requires public documentation and cannot be applied to more than a defined portion (approximately 40%) of a city’s roadway miles. Staff said the practical cost to implement signage and labor is modest and that retaining current posted speeds on these segments would have no significant fiscal impact in the near term.

Action taken: The commission voted to recommend that City Council approve the resolution to establish the speed limits as recommended by the 2024 engineering and traffic surveys. The recorded action forwarded to council was a recommendation to adopt the survey results and post the established speeds so that radar enforcement can proceed.

Ending: Staff said the city will transmit these survey recommendations to City Council for formal action; if council adopts the resolutions, the Police Department will be able to enforce speeds by radar using the newly established surveys.