ESCONDIDO — As the city considers additional improvements to Grand Avenue, several residents and business owners have asked that the traffic signal at the intersection with Juniper Street be restored in the interim.
The four-way traffic signal was converted to a red flashing signal in 2020 to slow traffic. Over the past five years, the city has also designed and constructed a more pedestrian-oriented downtown, reducing a large portion of Grand Avenue west of Juniper from four lanes to two, lowering the speed limit, widening sidewalks, converting parallel parking to diagonal parking, and installing new roundabouts at the Kalmia Street and Broadway Avenue intersections.
City staff now intends to extend some of those same traffic-calming measures east of Juniper. Proposed changes include reducing the traffic lanes from four to two between Fig Street and Valley Boulevard, converting the outside lane between Valley and Ivy Street to a right-turn-only lane, and switching from parallel to diagonal parking between Juniper and Ivy.
Other options include removing the traffic signal at Grand and Juniper entirely, replacing it with stop signs, or constructing a larger roundabout similar to the one at the Grand and Broadway intersection.
Given community requests and the cost of removing the traffic signal, City Traffic Engineer Ali Shahzad said staff is considering turning the signal back on after striping for the new traffic-calming measures is completed in the spring.
“We want to turn the signal back on but do some traffic calming before we do that so people aren’t barreling down at high speeds,” Shahzad said at the Jan. 7 Transportation and Community Safety Commission meeting, where he presented the options.
Staff is also considering modifying the Grand and Juniper intersection to include a “scramble” crosswalk, which would allow pedestrians to cross diagonally. Staff noted the design would be similar to scramble crosswalks already in use at intersections in Carlsbad and Encinitas.
Carol Rogers, a board member of the Escondido Downtown Business Association, said she liked the scramble crosswalk concept at Grand and Juniper.
“It’s a very active intersection, and with the farmers market and Second Saturday activities with the art galleries, I think that it is going to function really well there and will be safer for pedestrians,” Rogers said at the meeting.
Rogers also asked the city to consider additional traffic-calming measures at the Grand Avenue and Ivy Street intersection, citing increased vehicle and pedestrian traffic from the Palomar Heights development.
“People are not paying attention, so a little bit of consideration there would be a good thing,” she said. “Other than that, we love the traffic calming. It’s a perfect addition to downtown.”
Commissioners appeared receptive to both the scramble crosswalk concept and the proposal to restore the Grand and Juniper signal.
Commission Chair Beth Kassebaum said a scramble intersection would be more convenient for pedestrians and vehicles alike.
Some commissioners also indicated they would like to see a right-turn-only lane onto Ivy from westbound Grand toward the new traffic signal at Ivy Street and Valley Parkway.
“It seems like there’s a lot of speed there,” said Commissioner David Cazares.
Shahzad said diagonal parking between Juniper and Ivy would not only create “friction” to help slow traffic but would also add parking spaces downtown.
While a roundabout remains a future option at Grand and Juniper, the city is still waiting on delayed funding from SANDAG to complete another roundabout at Grand Avenue and Maple Street.
Shahzad said staff would return to the commission for further discussion of Grand Avenue traffic-calming measures at a future meeting.
