VISTA — The Vista Traffic Commission listened to residents who opposed the idea of a roundabout installation at Live Oak Road and Shadowridge Drive. At the Jan. 3 meeting, the traffic commission decided that the stop signs will remain.
According to Andrea McCullough, communications officer with the city of Vista, the proposed roundabout was to help enhance public safety by slowing traffic and deterring people from running the stop signs.
“The stop signs were installed in 2013 because of a long history of speeding complaints on Shadowridge Drive,” McCullough said.
Since the all-way stops signs, the city noted how pedestrians had challenges crossing Shadowridge because of the multiple lanes. A couple of rear-end crashes were also reported.
McCullough said the Traffic Commission decided not to move forward with the roundabout because of resident input.
“The residents did not want it,” she said. “They wrote to the traffic commission and also wrote to the City Council.”
Residents opposed the traffic circle calling it not a good fit in their neighborhood. They believed the narrowing of the road to accommodate vehicles moving into the roundabout would not work in the area.
McCullough also said the roundabout decision was initially scheduled for Dec. 6, 2017. However, one of the commissioners was unable to make the meeting, and a quorum was not met moving the item to Jan. 3.
The city publicized the January meeting and placed signs on Shadowridge Drive.
The public appeared on Jan. 3 and voiced their public opposition to the roundabout.
Despite this disapproval, roundabouts have sprouted in the city of Vista.
“We had our first roundabout at Eucalyptus and South Santa Fe for the Paseo Santa Fe Project — it’s a large roundabout,” McCullough said. “Then we have a smaller one that was just installed on Vale Terrace and Ponderosa — that’s a smaller one based on mostly crossing a trail that links to the other side of the street.”
McCullough added that the last site had issues before the roundabout installation. Lights were put up, and the traffic engineering department did what they could to slow down the traffic.
“But pedestrians were still at harm’s way, and so we put the roundabout there to slow traffic and people hiking the trail to cross the street safely,” she said.
Phase II of the Paseo Santa Fe Project, which is currently underway, will have a roundabout on Guajome and Terrace drives.
While currently unfunded, there are plans for another roundabout for Pala Vista Drive and South Santa Fe.
The city of Vista has noted that roundabouts are helping with the traffic flow. McCullough said it reduces vehicle speeds and saves money on traffic signals.
“When other roundabouts go up, we’ll be sure to let the public know via social media, the city website, and then other methods to get the word out to them,” she said.
