Here's the link.
Witness the civil, even friendly, interaction between our council members, as they come to unanimous agreement on what appears to be in the interest of not just city staff, but the majority of public speakers and the Encinitas public in general.
See, for example, the friendly banter between Kristin Gaspar and Teresa Barth at 01:28:30, less than a year after Gaspar's bizarre and baseless tirade against Barth.
I am genuinely pleasantly surprised. None of the council members displayed any of their frequently visible hostility toward each other, and Gaspar appeared significantly more capable and competent than she had appeared in the "recusal" faceplant.
Could this new civility be related to the absence of a certain divisive mayor? Maybe we should extend this experiment for a few years.
Comic relief was provided by Grandpa Simpson, who first got his knickers in a twist that bicyclists passed stopped traffic on the right. See the video at 01:04:00:
Excuse me, Steve [his name is actually Pete], before you leave, I have a question, ah, an observation. You showed the example of sharrows on a two-lane road which hasn't worked out swimmingly. And I'm wondering with regard to education, goes both ways. On a two-lane road, in the summertime, near the coast, gets crowded, stopped. The bikes can have the full lane, but I've seen bikers choose to go between the cars that are parked and between the cars that are moving slowly in that two-lane road, where they are putting themselves in door danger if you will. Is there some education on the part of the biking community to say, "hey, you may have to wait in traffic like everybody else on occasion?"Um, no, Grandpa Simpson. Bicyclists are allowed to pass stopped or slowed cars on the right.
I can just hear him sitting in traffic in his Oldsmobile: "Dadgummit! Those pesky kids on their new-fangled velocipedes are going to get to the 7-11 before me!"
Grandpa then reiterated his point before calling Pete "Steve" again.
Then at 01:29:50, Grandpa kept worrying that drivers would completely ignore lane markings and keep driving in two lanes even though a single lane would be clearly marked. Have you seen widespread cases of drivers ignoring lane markings and driving on the shoulder in Southern California? I haven't. Grandpa goes on at some length on this issue.
I kid Jim Bond, but we owe him a debt of gratitude. He was the lone voice on the council to vote against the Great Jerome Stocks Pension Giveaway of 2005, which will haunt Encinitas finances for decades. Thanks for your service, Jim, and happy retirement.
So in a nut shell what you are saying is that Gaspar is a different person when Stocks isn't around and Bond is an idiot. Okay.
ReplyDelete"Idiot" is a strong word.
DeleteLet's just say it's really time for him to retire.
W.C., that was both a kind and accurate response. I agree.
ReplyDeletePlease, no props for Gaspar. She's already shown her true colors.
ReplyDeleteWe support the sharrows, NOT the lane diet, for which only Leucadia, north of the traffic signal at Leucadia Blvd (and North Hwy. 101) is being singled out.
ReplyDeleteTraffic's already been slowed. New speed limit signs now are posted at 35 MPH, instead of 40. Traffic is ALREADY clogged during peak traffic periods, especially in the summer, during rush hours, or any time there's slowdown and back-up on I-5.
Our local residential neighborhoods west of North 101 already are suffering from cut through traffic, cars racing through our neighborhoods when North 101 is backed up, which seems more and more often. Putting the same amount of cars through only one lane is like putting your finger on a garden hose. The water sprays out, under more pressure, because it BACKS UP IN THE HOSE. The same amount of motor vehicles will take LONGER to travel the same distance. It will be HARDER for trucks to unload their wares, drivers using a hand truck to carry them across the highway.
Also, due to the two traffic circles on Leucadia Blvd., and narrow streets west of North Hwy 101, emergency response times are already slowed, here; they're already SUBPAR according to Fire Dept. standards. A lane diet will only make matters worse.
The lane diet is part of the North Hwy 101 Streetscape Project, which is still under environmental review. Caltrans and the City of Carlsbad both submitted questions relating to the road diet and traffic backing up, and Peltz and Associates, roundabout lobbyists, were awarded $75,000 more to do further traffic impact analysis, including metering on ramps on Leucaida Blvd. and Encinitas Blvd. The City should know from the lawsuit it lost over premature demolition at the Hall Property that an initial phase of a project can't be legally separated out so that phase of the project avoids environmental review of the project as a whole.
For the City to suddenly claim that the road diet is part of the street overlay project and not "specifically" part of the Streetscape project is pretense and a ruse. The realtor spokesperson for Leucadia 101 Mainstreet Association admitted that the lane diet IS part of the No. 101 Streetscape.
The Streetscape for No. 101 calls for the first traffic circle (roundabouts have two lanes, not one) to be installed at El Portal. Doing so would extend the road diet SOUTH of the signal at Leucadia Blvd, where the traffic engineers' staff report showed any lane diet would be unworkable as traffic already backs up between the three way stop sign at Marchetta and the light at Leucadia Blvd, along No. 101. Believe me, if there's a lane diet, traffic will be backed up further north of the signal at Leucadia Blvd and No 101, more often and for a much longer duration, right up to La Costa Blvd.
Cut through traffic puts bicyclists, pedestrians and beachgoers using Neptune for our recreational needs at further risk. The community here DOESN"T need or want a lane diet OR 5 traffic circles in about 2 miles! Having a roundabout one block from a stop sign is STUPID, as is the one west of Hygeia on Leucadia Blvd! There's a lot of back up, there, too. People sometimes have to wait up to 25 minutes to get through to North 101, or to get to the freeway, if they dare!