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Caltrans move draws critics in Lone Pine |
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Monday, 15 December 2008 |
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By Mike Gervais
Register Staff
12-13-2008 Residents of Lone Pine are seeing red after Caltrans prohibited parking on sections of Main Street, and used a 2005 request from the Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce to justify the move.
Caltrans recently red-curbed several sections of Main Street in Lone Pine at roads intersecting with U.S. 395. The red zone, Caltrans said, will give motorists a better line of sight and help prevent accidents.
Some residents and business owners are contesting the red-curbing, claiming that Caltrans has failed to address concerns that the community expressed in 2005, and has only limited parking in the already congested downtown corridor.
Several residents sent letters to Caltrans arguing that the loss of parking will be detrimental to business and that the agency has failed to address the issues that were brought forward in 2005.
“The Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce had requested two on-demand caution lights be placed at two specific crosswalks on Main Street, one between the Lone Pine High School and McDonalds, and the other at the crosswalk where the children cross with a crossing guard to attend Lo-Inyo Elementary School,” Lone Pine resident and business owner Margaret Warner said. “We have not yet been granted those caution lights.”
Warner also said she was taken aback when Caltrans District 9 Director Tom Hallenbeck said the red curbing was added at the request of the Chamber of Commerce, referencing a letter Hallenbeck wrote to the community in which he mentions the chamber’s request that the Institute of Transportation Studies Technology Transfer Program, University of California Berkeley, conduct a traffic safety evaluation and provide suggestions to improve traffic safety on U.S. 395 in the Town of Lone Pine.
That study focused on enhancing traffic safety and operations on U.S. 395 from Inyo Street to Begole Street and looked at potential mitigations for commonly occurring accidents, such as sideswipes and broadside collisions.
The study also focused on addressing Lone Pine’s accident rate of 3.75 accidents per one million vehicle miles traveled, which Hallenbeck says “is significantly higher than the statewide average of 1.15.”
Caltrans also looked at enhancing pedestrian safety at uncontrolled marked crosswalks on U.S. 395 in the face of existing seasonal traffic volumes that are expected to increase in the future.
“For you to use that study and the Lone Pine Chamber’s name to somehow legitimize your decision to extend the red curbing is a gross misuse of both the study and the practice of participating,” Warner wrote in a response to Hallenbeck. “I take it personally that you would even suggest that the Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce participated in requesting or even knowing this action would be the result.”
The “result” of that study came in the form of sections of red curb at intersections in Lone Pine.
The new no-parking zones eliminate “one, sometimes two parking spaces” per section of red curbing, Caltrans Deputy District Director of Maintenance and Operations Craig Holste said.
According to Caltrans, this move will give motorists a better “line of sight” as traffic from cross streets attempt to turn onto or cross U.S. 395.
The downside is that Main Street businesses, which are already struggling to come up with adequate parking to accommodate customers, have lost a number of parking spaces.
“Please understand that we do not take actions such as this lightly,” Hallenbeck said. “We recognize that parking in rural communities is an important and sensitive concern, and work to make certain we apply the minimum appropriate standards. It is unfortunate that the improved sight distance has resulted in the loss of some parking spots in front of your business, but it is necessary to improve safety for your customers, the residents of Lone Pine and the traveling public.”
According to Warner, the new no-parking sections in Lone Pine “does affect the businesses, because people like the convenience of parking, and Lone Pine doesn’t have a lot of space to build parking lots for the businesses. Losing that parking negatively affects the value of that property.”
When repainting the curb “we did the absolute minimum that we could to still meet the state safety standard, but if there was a bus or car or motor home parked there, you wouldn’t be able to see” oncoming traffic on U.S. 395, Holste said.
Caltrans is planning to eliminate several “curb cuts,” or driveway entrances, from U.S. 395 that are not being used. By eliminating those spaces, Holste said, Caltrans will free up more parking.
“We’re also going to mark the parking spaces that are available so people use them more efficiently,” Holste said.
But, even if Caltrans does manage to alleviate the parking issue in Lone Pine, requests for on-demand signals for pedestrians has not yet been addressed.
“Our concern was that these people are crossing traffic and people traveling at a high rate of speed, in both directions, don’t see the cross walks,” Warner said. “That is still not addressed.”
To address that issue, Holste said Caltrans is planning to return to Lone Pine in the coming months to make improvements to crosswalks in Lone Pine.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 12 January 2009 )
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