Council puts brakes on El Vago Street speeders
To slow drivers using El Vago Street as a speedway between Alta Canyada Drive and La Cañada Boulevard, City Council members voted Tuesday to place stop signs at the street’s juncture with Donna Maria Lane and to provide additional speed enforcement.
The decision was the culmination of nearly a year of analysis and interim traffic calming measures such as lane striping, the latter of which one traffic engineer said had proven to be ineffective at reducing prevailing speeds.
The issue was brought to the La Cañada Flintridge City Council last October by a number of residents who asked that El Vago’s speed limit be reduced from the current 35 to 25 mph. Neighbors had circulated a petition requesting a reduction, only to find state law classified the thoroughfare as a “collector street,” or one that transports vehicles between larger arterial roads, and not a residential street.
For those streets, speed limits are set by calculating the prevailing speed, or the rate which represents the 85 percentile of actual speeds monitored, rounded to the nearest 5. Municipalities are then allowed to adjust that number by 5 mph up or down.
A 2009 traffic study put El Vago’s prevailing speed at 39 mph, which rounded up to 40 and gave the city discretion to reduce it to 35 mph. Council members voted to try traffic calming measures in an effort to reduce the prevailing speed down to 35 mph.
But Tuesday, traffic engineer Farhad Iranitalab (filling in for city traffic engineer Steve Libring, who is on vacation) said a March 30 study found the striping had done little to change driving behaviors.
“The data shows that didn’t really do anything — the speeding stayed the same,” Iranitalab told council members.
Going back to the drawing board, the Public Works and Traffic Commission considered other options that could be taken, including creating a three-way stop where El Vago meets Donna Maria. Commissioners decided that would be the most cost effective method of slowing traffic.
Residents turned out to share their thoughts on the recommendation. June Lam, who lives near the proposed stop sign location, said the juncture was too close to La Cañada Boulevard to deter speeders coming east from Alta Canyada.
Neighbor Jeff Sneed said he believed the stop signs would help solve a stopping sight distance problem that currently requires cars accessing El Vago from Donna Maria. Indian Drive resident Bill Pounders said he was skeptical the stop signs would be observed.
“I’ve never seen a problem on El Vago that would be solved by putting up signs or reducing the speeds,” he said. “(That) doesn’t resolve that problem — only enforcement does. People getting citations a few times will learn they’ve got to reduce speeds.”
Liz Schwalbach, one of the original complainants, called the stop signs “a pragmatic solution” and thanked council members for reviewing the issue.
Ultimately, council members agreed that like them or not, stop signs are the most effective means of slowing traffic. The city plans to contact the sheriff’s department about increasing enforcement and will review the matter again in six months.
“I don’t particularly like stop signs,” Councilman Dave Spence said in his remarks. “But it does slow down the traffic, and I think it’s the way to go.”
Tree talk
In other news Tuesday, council members heard a request from former La Cañada Mayor Laura Olhasso to amend the city’s official map of trees — a guiding document intended to promote consistent landscaping and maintenance of residential trees located in the public right of way — to allow her to replace four dead birch trees with the same species.
The trees at her Solliden Lane home likely died as the result of the drought, Olhasso explained in a public hearing, but before their deaths enhanced the property aesthetically. While the tree map suggests liquidambar as a suitable planting for that immediate neighborhood, Olhasso maintained the roots of one such tree on her property has already disrupted a private sidewalk.
“That, to me, is a really bad option,” she said. “Replacing these birch trees, which we really love, is something we’d like to ask for.”
After some discussion from Public Works Director Edward Hitti about how and why the map of trees was established and the process for recommending replacements and making amendments, council members decided to make the amendment to allow for birch on Solliden.
“I have a liquidambar in front of my house, and I think it’s a lousy tree,” Spence said, explaining the map was intended as a starting point for suggestions about already predominate species on city streets. “I think it is totally and positively appropriate to approve the request.”
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
