Restrict Trucks on Black Mountain Road?

by Scott Peters
for the Corridor News
September 13, 2001

Since the opening of the "loop road" last year, Rancho Peñasquitos has experienced significant increases in traffic volumes, noise and speeds, particularly from construction trucks. Nowhere are these increases better illustrated than along Black Mountain Road, which has essentially become the interim State Route 56. This has threatened both vehicular and pedestrian safety, especially the safety of children who live near, commute on and attend school next to Black Mountain Road.

My staff and I have been working with the community, the police department and City traffic engineers to implement creative solutions to improve pedestrian and vehicular safety in Rancho Peñasquitos, and we have made significant strides. We have installed oversized fluorescent school signs on Black Mountain Road at Adolphia and Oviedo and a new traffic signal at Maler. We've reduced the posted speed limit to 40 miles per hour. We have prohibited eastbound right turns on red at Oviedo. We've conducted a public awareness campaign to make sure that we ourselves watch our speeds as we travel on Black Mountain Road. Most significant, we have worked with local builders to gain the funding necessary to complete Camino Ruiz and the interchange with State Route 56 by next summer, four years ahead of schedule. We anticipate that this infrastructure improvement alone will reduce traffic volumes on Black Mountain Road by nearly 60 percent and provide developers with a convenient alternative to Black Mountain Road for access to their construction sites.

Even with these improvements, the impressive efforts of the police department to increase enforcement, and the cooperation of developers, the increased volume of traffic on Black Mountain Road will continue to pose a safety challenge for residents and police during the coming school year. Therefore, I have asked the Rancho Peñasquitos Planning Board for input on one additional potential safety measure - a prohibition on truck traffic on Black Mountain Road from Carmel Mountain Road to Emden Road. The options available at this time are:

• Prohibit construction trucks 24-hours a day, 7 days a week until Camino Ruiz opens next summer.
• Prohibit construction trucks from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on weekdays, to correspond with school    starting and ending times, until Camino Ruiz opens next summer.
• Don't implement a prohibition, but work to increase enforcement with the police department and developers and accept the offer    of one developer to fund a speed trailer and radar guns for the police department.

The planning board will take a formal vote on October 3rd. Please contact my office with your suggestions on this issue. I understand that there may be advantages and disadvantages to a truck ban, and I want to ensure that consensus is reached by both the residents and the local planning board on this important community issue. In the meantime, I urge you to continue to drive responsibly and to do your part to ensure the safety of the children in your community.