Toni Atkins, Speaker of the California State Assembly, and Coronado’s regional representative, held a community meeting at the Coronado Library Thursday, May 28th, at 4:00 p.m. While she herself was not in attendance, two from her staff were — one taking names and one fielding questions.
Tom Slattery, a resident of Third and Fourth Streets corridor and member of the neighborhood group TAF, attended the meeting to discuss growing concerns and frustrations over unrestrained traffic on the corridor. Mr. Slattery is the father of a boy hit by a vehicle on the unsafe roadway.
In an urgent tone he asked, “What does it take to get SOMEONE to enforce the speed limit?”
Surprisingly, according to Mr. Slattery, the staffers had “no idea whatsoever who was responsible” for what on the complicated jurisdictional quagmire, formally known as State Routes (SR)75 and 282. Ms. Atkins staffers could only refer him to the local Coronado Police Department.
Mr. Slattery presented Coronado Police Department (CPD) ticketing statistics that have been painstakingly ordered and logged for several years by fellow resident, Joe Horn. Mr. Horn’s data tracks the number of tickets broken down to show how few are written for speed-related incidents. At the May TAF meeting, the community was informed that the one-mile stretch of residential highway bears over 90,000 vehicles per day. These figures were higher than Joe had based data on, which was in the 70,000 per day range. Even at that lower number, Third Street (282) is overwhelmed with 1.5 million vehicles per month (inbound). Out of those 1.5 million vehicles, for the months of March and April 2015, 8 speed related tickets were written on Third Street by CPD’s own documentation. “No speeding citations were written for 282 from Orange Avenue to Naval Air Station North Island (NASNI).”
The City of Coronado reported at the May TAF meeting that speed related ticketing was in the 1500-range. While the 1500 number was correct, according to Mr. Horn, only a handful were for speed. The majority of those citations were for registration and cell phone use.
Fourth Street citations (outbound) at first appeared to hold better news for the beleaguered roadway. Mr. Horn clarified this was sadly not the case by showing that while 24-tickets had been written for March and April 2015 for speeding on Fourth Street, the recent Speed Study done by Caltrans showed that 85% of vehicles for that same two-month period were speeding. “That is nearly 3-million cars per month speeding through Coronado’s residential neighborhoods unchecked.”
Caltrans’ Mike Powers, confirmed to TAF in April 2015, that the Speed Study did indeed measure that 85% of traffic was going over the posted 25mph limit; at 30mph on 282, and 35 mph on 75, the portion of roadway where a local man was recently killed when he was struck by a car.
CPD efforts have also been neutered by the previous Speed Study. Chula Vista South Bay traffic court judges reject the posted 25mph speed through cottage-lined Third and Fourth Streets on the grounds that speed is not in compliance with the National Speed Law and therefore constitutes an illegal “Speed Trap.” A previous neighborhood group led by Richard Scharff successfully argued to lower the speed for safety reasons in 2005. Caltrans just completed the hotly contested 2015 speed study, which is required every decade. TAF has invited traffic commissioners to their monthly meeting, but invitations have been ignored.
There are two exceptions in the National Speed Law: school zones and neighborhoods. It was reported at the May 2015 Coronado Transportation Commission (CTC) meeting that the city was able to argue that Third and Fourth Streets are a “neighborhood” and Caltrans would be raising the posted speeds by only 5 mph to accommodate that, resulting in an increased posted speed limit only on 75 – to 30mph. What is not known at this time is whether South Bay traffic judges will still cite the Speed Study results and continue to dismiss all tickets.
TAF believes the traffic Speed Study is a chicken or egg scenario. Had the posted speed been enforced, is it likely that 85% of the traffic would NOT have been traveling ten-miles over the speed limit at 35mph? If that were the case, the Speed Study would have supported the 25mph posted speeds. As a result, judges would be required to honor tickets.
To further complicate matters, California Highway Patrol (CHP) has jurisdiction from I-5 onto the Bridge – to the state-owned Toll Plaza. CHP Sergeant Deher, reports CHP cannot ticket speeders coming into Coronado, that is CPD jurisdiction. The CHP operates a substation at the Toll Plaza building. It is reportedly filled with video monitoring equipment for bridge observation. The public is not allowed inside the substation.
“The Bridge,” as locals call her, is designed in such a manner that enforcing speed on inbound traffic is impossible by CHP. There is nowhere to pull a car over, and to do so would create back-up that could congest interstate 5 and Routes 94, 163, and 54. Once the cars are on Coronado, CHP cannot pursue them into Coronado. However, According to sources at CPD, this is not true. The CHP can enforce speed on Third and Fourth.
As a result, the posted speed of 50 mph is flatly ignored, and those who do drive that speed are bullied by frustrated speeding drivers.
The City of Coronado data shows that for all of 2014, only 32-speeding tickets were written. 85% of the 15,000,000 vehicles for that year, were exceeding the speed limit according to the recent study.
Speaker Atkins’ staff assured attendees at the May 28th meeting that her office would speak with CHP, Coronado, and Caltrans – in an attempt to understand the speed enforcement matter.
