Letter to the Editor: POLITICIAN BAMBOOZLED US

By Roadrunner | on August 10, 2023

Editor, Roadrunner:

I presume everyone knows our local politician bamboozled the S.D. Traffic Advisory Committee to install a traffic light at Ridge Ranch Road, so everyone, including trucks and trailers, has to stop while coming UP the grade, just so another local politician can turn left coming out of Ridge Ranch, instead of making a U-turn at Woods Valley like originally designed. Why, even Oceanside police said this light would cause accidents.

The original plan would have worked well with the new roundabout planned for Woods Valley, one of four roundabouts Valley Center will have to negotiate. Of course, there will be other traffic lights between the roundabouts, since no one can make up their mind which is better.

Think there are enough accidents on Valley Center Road now? Wait until all these lights and roundabouts, including the big 2-lane roundabout at Cole Grade, get built. Of course, you will have to stop and wait while our fire engines slowly negotiate these roundabouts, as well as horse trailers, tractor trailers etc. slow traffic to fender bender speed.

I just don’t understand why no one here in Valley Center has an opinion on roundabouts vs. traffic lights, or the planned mix of both.

BILL MACEY, Valley Center

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Editor—Hate to spoil the narrative of your conspiracy theory, but there is no evidence that the local politician you refer to had anything to do with the light being approved for Ridge Ranch Road & Valley Center Road. A number of residents of that development spoke to the local planning group and the Traffic Advisory Committee, which made the recommendation to the Board of Supervisors for the light for safety reasons. Not political reasons. But conspiracy theories are so much more fun, aren’t they?

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People using the road make mistakes (like speeding, running stop signs and red lights, turning left in front of oncoming traffic), always have and always will. Crashes will always be with us, but they need not result in fatalities or serious injury.

Modern roundabouts are the safest form of intersection in the world – the intersection type with the lowest risk of fatal or serious injury crashes – (much more so than comparable signals). Modern roundabouts require a change in speed and alter the geometry of one of the most dangerous parts of the system – intersections. The reduction in speed to about 20 mph and sideswipe geometry mean that, when a crash does happen at a modern roundabout, you might need a tow truck, but rarely an ambulance. Visit the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety or FHWA for modern roundabout FAQs and safety facts.

The FHWA has been saying for over 20 years that signal intersections have TEN TIMES the fatality risk of modern roundabouts.

Roundabouts also have less daily delay than signals. I know which I prefer.

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