After years of working with Orange County Traffic Engineers, the Rossmoor Community Services District has relentlessly pursued solutions to problems associated with growing traffic and lately, electric bikes moving through this iconic community of more than 11,000 residents.
At a recent meeting, the District’s Board of Directors gave final approval to an ordinance to mitigate the growth problems related to the proliferation of electric bikes in the community.
Electric bikes have only added to the growing transportation problems of the district, directors say, and members of the board were hopeful that the new ordinance will have an impact.
General Manager Sharon Landers presented a body of evidence to the Directors illustrating significant impacts and destruction caused by the abuse of electric bikes in the community’s green spaces and public parks.
While electric bikes are one aspect of transportation, Directors are also looking at more long-term traffic problems.
Many transportation issues still exist and Directors held an open discussion at their March meeting with the Orange County Traffic Department.
Last year, Rossmoor residents overwhelmingly rejected a revamp of the district’s street network that OC Traffic Engineers had worked on for more than two years.
Traffic engineers representing the OC Public Works Department developed a comprehensive plan that included so-called “round-about” traffic circles, an option which residents overwhelmingly rejected when they had a chance to vote on the plan.
Nevertheless, Wei Zhu, P.E, T.E., PMP. M., ASCE, a Senior Civil Engineer in the Orange County Public Works Department, Ms. Zhu, and two team members from the team responsible for many key services in the Traffic Engineering and Development Support unit were back, this time to discuss school safety and parking.
Orange County Traffic Engineer Wei Zhu speaks to the Rossmoor Board of Directors.
She said the committee planned to hold a meeting later in the week with its own Traffic Committee to discuss adding an adult crossing guard to Lee Elementary School.
Moreover, Ms. Zhu said she would explain exactly how the investigation into the recommendation took place.
“I understand that you guys want to understand how we do this, so I’m going to use this opportunity to try to explain what data we need and what criteria we’re looking into, and then based on that analysis, how we come up with our recommendation,” the engineer said.
Zhu has studied the dynamics of traffic in Rossmoor for years, so during the discussion, she routinely used real-time data to explain the methods the OC Traffic Engineers had used to deal with the district’s traffic problems.
Regarding the District’s request of either providing a stop control or an adult crossing guard at the intersection of Foster Road and Silverwood Drive (next to Lee Elementary) to enhance its safety, Zhu explained a new option.
Zhu said both streets were standard, 36-foot, curb-to-curb pavement with parking on both sides. Speed limits are 25 mph on both, though Foster is a connecting route.
Using school times (start at 8:05 a.m.), Zhu recited traffic counts for area streets. In addition, she said the intersection was tested against criteria to qualify for stop control, and then the three criteria necessary to qualify for an adult crossing guard.
She said Foster and Silverwood failed to meet the minimum of the required 500 (cars) daily traffic count, with 370 for Foster and 360 for Silverwood. Zhu said the intersection also failed to meet the accident test, with no records of collisions or accidents at this location.
Zhu said OC Traffic Engineers used other criteria to enhance safety so that they did not have “to add a stop sign at every single intersection, even those with minimal traffic counts.”
Zhu also explained the three additional criteria that govern an OC Public Works standard for approving an adult crossing guard decision, noting quickly that the intersection meets all of the criteria to qualify for an additional crossing guard.
She also explained an alternative solution for parking, another pressing Rossmoor problem.
Zhu explained the rules that would govern parking along marked curbs on Hedwig Road. She said the problem with dedicated street parking is that the north side, where the parking would be most prevalent, is also the residential side of the street, and such parking could impair the vision of neighbors who live there as they are trying to back out of their driveways.
Rossmoor Director Tony DeMarco, head of its Traffic Committee, urged the County to go easy on “the county standards” that govern all the unincorporated areas, saying some may not apply so automatically in Rossmoor.
For instance, the five-accident standard in the stop control protocol.
“I think to myself, are those just, you know, casual accidents. Are they resulting in a death? I mean, the community should dictate a lot of these…it could make our community safer,” he told the OC officials.
“There are a lot of intersections in Rossmoor that have blind spots that, at least under the county standard, and some intersections should never have a stop sign because it doesn’t trigger,” he told Zhu.
Lately, however, DeMarco said things have changed, and he thanked the OC Public Works Department for installing many new stop signs in Rossmoor.
DeMarco commended the County “for putting in some stop signs that should have been put in a long time ago.”
Finally, it appears as though Rossmoor may get a representative on a county traffic committee.
Two months ago, County Supervisor Janet Nguyen requested that the county-wide traffic committee, an advisory committee that makes traffic recommendations for the Board of Supervisors, add a representative from her district to the panel.
One of the engineers accompanying Zhu told the Directors that the committee’s by-laws will be amended and Supervisor Nguyen will be appointing someone from the 1st District to serve on the expanded Orange County Traffic Committee.
“I think it would be great to have someone from RCSD serve as part of that committee,” they told the board. “If anyone is interested, reach out to the Supervisor’s Office or to us, and we can relay that interest to her office.”
Finally, responding to a question from Director Mary Ann Remnet, Zhu said they have requested a third party take a second look at the Local Roadway Safety Program they have already developed.
The OC Traffic Engineer said it’s a good idea to take a “holistic approach” to transportation solutions, noting that many times, they see “good suggestions” or “fresh ideas” emerge.