Encinitas drivers can expect to start seeing more flashing electronic message signs warning them to slow down and watch out for cyclists or pedestrians.
In a 4-0 vote, with Councilmember Joy Lyndes absent, the City Council agreed last week to pull out signs that have been sitting in the city public works department’s storage yard and start placing them along city roadways on a somewhat permanent basis.
Councilmember Jim O’Hara, who brought forward the proposal, said these signs are currently mostly “sedentary” — they’re typically only used when the city has a roadway construction project and wants to alert drivers of construction-related slowdowns or lane closures.
“The goal is to get the return on investment, which we currently don’t get,” he said.
Councilmember Luke Shaffer said he thought now was an excellent time to start regularly using the signs, given the recent public push for more roadway safety measures.
Friends and family members of Emery Chalekian — a 12-year-old girl who was struck by a vehicle and killed in April while in the crosswalk at Encinitas Boulevard and Village Square — have been lobbying city officials to make roadway safety changes. Some of them came to Wednesday’s meeting and played a video for council members. In that recording, several of Emery’s friends said they wanted vehicles to slow down and to do a better job of noticing pedestrians.
Shaffer said Encinitas could use the electronic message signs for a wide range of things, even alerting drivers to fires such as the small one near Quail Gardens Drive earlier that day.
“I think the sky’s the limit on these things right now,” he said.
City Manger Jennifer Campbell said Encinitas currently has seven electronic message signs in storage, but could obtain more if the council wishes to do so at a later date.
Several public speakers offered the council suggestions on where the signs could be placed, stressing that they should be well over on the side of the side of the road and not in the bike lanes.
Mayor Bruce Ehlers said the city has previously used flashing message signs during roadway safety campaigns. He added that he expects residents will soon start noticing that vehicles aren’t speeding as much on city roadways. That’s because of a new enforcement effort by area Sheriff’s deputies, he said.
For the past four months, deputies have been doing day-long, blitz enforcement actions on major roadways, including Encinitas Boulevard. There was one Wednesday, Ehlers noted.
During the first one in June, deputies conducted 120 traffic stops. July’s one-day event generated 200 traffic stops, and the one in August involved 250 traffic stops, including 52 that were related to illegal cell phone use by drivers, Ehlers said.