Residents say 50 mph zone ending at neighborhood near elementary school is dangerously configured; city staff to coordinate enforcement and review

Three residents told the Traffic Safety and Mobility Commission they face repeated, dangerous crashes where a 50-mph speed zone ends at their neighborhood near an elementary school and urged physical changes and enforcement.

"My house is at the end of a 50 mile an hour zone, and it's a pretty dangerous area," said resident I Curran, who described five incidents in the past 11 years in which cars damaged property and in one recent event nearly struck pedestrians. He said traffic signs alone have not stopped vehicles from entering the neighborhood at high speed and urged the city to install physical measures such as bollards or barriers.

Teresa Donato, a longtime resident who said she served as a crossing guard for the school, described frequent close calls and drivers making illegal U-turns, and said enforcement has been infrequent. "There's gotta be stop signs. There's gotta be a barrier because someone's gonna get killed," she said.

Steve Harris described the roadway as creating a direct, high-speed path into the community and urged the city to spend money to make the area safe. "If I had to design the perfect way to shoot a missile into our little community, this is how I would do it," he said, using an engineer's analogy to stress the risk.

Commissioners listened and said they supported prompt attention. Staff said they have had initial contact with the community, are coordinating internally and with the police department to explore enforcement options, and will determine whether the concern should be handled through the residential traffic management program or another path. Deputy City Manager for Public Works Paz Gomez said staff are engaging the police department and will work with residents and commissioners on the next steps.

Chair Coelho encouraged residents to also present to City Council if they want a faster response, noting the commission advises council and cannot directly direct staff: "The best way to get things a bit faster is to have City Council direct staff to accelerate the process," he said. No formal timeline or commitment to a specific physical remedy was announced at the meeting; staff said they will continue coordination with residents and report back when there is a recommended path forward.

(Transcript note: the public commenters referred to the nearby elementary school with two variant spellings in the record; the article uses the description "a neighborhood near an elementary school" to avoid reproducing a possibly inconsistent name.)