LETTERS: Sylvan Corners, mayor, defunding police
February 14, 2021
By Michael Price, Citrus Heights—
[RE: City closes one lane of Old Auburn Rd for 9-day experiment; Oct. 17th] Sacramento County exercised poor planning by letting the area grow without adding lanes to accommodate the increased traffic. Citrus Heights inherited the issue, but hasn’t done a good job of relieving the issue.
My feedback on the 9-day test:
Relieving increased traffic flow is never fixed by removing a lane.
My input for future improvements:
MORE LETTERS:
Two lanes is better than one
I cannot understand the thinking behind reducing Old Auburn Road to one lane at Garry Oak Drive. Since the implementation, all we saw was TRAFFIC.
Cars exiting Garry Oak could not turn onto Old Auburn Road because traffic in one lane was backed up, blocking the exit. Also, that pedestrian/bike lane abruptly ended in a quarter mile, not allowing cars to merge over in enough time to make a right turn either onto the street next to Grace Bible Church or even onto Antelope Road.
When traveling on Old Auburn Road, eastbound, once a car passed through the intersection, it could not turn left onto Garry Oak because, again, traffic was backed up on Old Auburn waiting for the signal.
Those crashes into the planter boxes mostly happen at night. I know, get rid of the planter boxes!
Also, I have lived in the neighborhood since 1992, and the amount of pedestrian and bicycle traffic is minimal. I definitely prefer two lanes on Old Auburn as well as two left turn lanes on Fair Oaks.
-Molly Matchell, Citrus Heights
‘Road Diet’ is a great idea
I live just south of the intersection of Fair Oaks and Old Auburn, and I applaud the idea of this road diet! I hope city planners bring back the protected bike lane.
I’ve often thought that putting Fair Oaks Blvd on road diet at least as far south as Greenback would be a great idea, to give cyclists and pedestrians more space to breathe on what can be an incredibly aggressive stretch of road for motorists.
Protected bike lanes are good, but only if you can actually get from point A to point B on them. An isolated stretch of protected bike lane like in this test is just not sufficient; to get the full effect of a road diet, you have to make it easier for alternate modes of transportation like biking. Over time, you’ll see thru traffic pushed to major thoroughfares like Sunrise and Hazel, and out of our neighborhoods. I urge planners to go further!
–Joshua Beigel, Orangevale
Additional letters on this topic from Oct. 27th can be read here: LETTER: City’s traffic experiment on Old Auburn Road is insane
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