Escondido staff reviews paving, bikeway additions and sharrows rule change

City of Escondido staff summarized progress on the citywide traffic program at the Oct. 9 Transportation and Community Safety Commission meeting, highlighting pavement preservation work, new buffered bike lanes, pedestrian‑scale lighting installations and several development projects that will affect traffic access.

Craig Williams (staff) said the city operates a pavement preservation cycle in which eight pavement zones receive focused work roughly once every eight years. Recent repaving on Center City Parkway and reconfiguration of Rock Springs Road to include a center left‑turn lane, one through lane each direction, bike lanes and parking were shown in staff photos. Williams said the city will install buffered bike lanes for the first time on a stretch of Center City Parkway — including a 3‑foot buffer — and added bike lanes approaching the Quince/Creek Trail crossing.

On lighting, staff described new LED pedestrian‑scale fixtures on Juniper and Old Escondido that are tunable for color and brightness. A commissioner raised a near‑term concern about whether those lights could be energized and tuned for Halloween; staff said the lights are in the tuning phase and will follow up with the project manager at South Coast Lighting.

Staff also addressed state guidance on sharrows (shared‑lane markings). "The law that they passed... said that they shouldn't be used on any road that has a speed limit ... greater than 30," Williams said, summarizing a recent California change. He said the city will avoid installing new sharrows on roadways posted above 30 mph and will prefer striped bike lanes or narrowed vehicle lanes where feasible.

Neighborhood traffic items included updates on signal timing changes near Gamble Street after residents reported cut‑through traffic routed by navigation apps. Ali (city traffic engineer) said revised signal phasing on Lincoln Parkway has reduced average speeds through the neighborhood by about 1 mph and reduced daily volumes slightly; officers’ enforcement tolerance was described as roughly 5–7 mph over the posted limit. Staff also discussed a potential pilot of rubberized speed humps for qualifying neighborhoods; the pilot would require fire department sign‑off and a neighborhood approval threshold (staff described a typical 67% neighborhood support threshold).

Staff noted development impacts, including a new drive cut to serve commercial pads (Starbucks, Chipotle) on Center City Parkway aligned with an existing car wash entrance and several multi‑family housing projects near Quince and Valley. Williams said the city approved a one‑way median cut for southbound ingress to those commercial pads and that signal poles are on order.

Budget note: staff said the Transportation and Community Safety Commission earlier recommended increasing the commission’s TMPL project budget to $200,000; staff has not yet presented that request to council but expects to do so in the coming weeks, and staff reported council’s recent vision workshop elevated traffic safety as a top priority.

Provenance: Topic intro: "Thank you, chair, and thank you, commissioners, for this, opportunity... I'm gonna talk about city sponsored projects..." (transcript block b66) Topic finish: "...we have another, item that we wanna talk about, South Of Escondido access." (transcript block b260)

Speakers (attributed in article): - Craig Williams, staff member (City of Escondido) - Ali, city traffic engineer (City of Escondido) - Matt Keller, South Coast Lighting (mentioned)

Authorities: - state law: "California law restricting sharrow use to roads with posted speed 30 mph or less" (as described by staff)

Discussion vs. decision: - Discussion: pavement preservation strategy, lighting tuning, sharrows policy response to state change, Gamble neighborhood timing changes, development cut approvals. - Direction: staff to follow up on lighting for Halloween and to present TMPL funding request to council; staff to explore protected bike facility near San Pasqual High School (raised in commissioner time). - Formal action: none taken on these items at this meeting.

Clarifying details: - Pavement program: eight pavement zones on an 8‑year maintenance cycle (staff description). - Buffered bike lanes: planned buffered lanes on Center City Parkway with 3‑foot buffer (staff description). - Sharrows policy: city will avoid new sharrow installations on roadways posted over 30 mph per recent California change (staff description). - TMPL funding: commission requested increasing TMPL project funding to $200,000; staff to present to council.

Searchable_tags:["pavement","bike_lanes","lighting","sharrows","tmpl_program"]