NEWPORT BEACH : Consultant Suggests More Traffic Signals

A consultant for the city is recommending that more traffic signals be installed along Balboa Boulevard to make the area safer for pedestrians.

A report by Austin-Foust Associates Inc., which will be presented to the community today at 7 p.m. in the Fire Department conference room in Newport Beach, also recommends that the city remove some of the crosswalks along the street.

According to Austin-Foust, drivers ignore stop signs, particularly those at a boulevard and minor street intersection such as Balboa Boulevard and its cross streets.

“Over half of the motorists perform a ‘rolling stop,’ while 10 to 15% of the motorists completely disregard stop signs,” the Austin-Foust report said.

“Many pedestrians regard marked crosswalks as providing them with some implied safety when, in fact, real-world experience shows precisely the opposite--marked crosswalks are less safe than unmarked ones.”

Installation of traffic signals along Balboa Boulevard can be done with little disruption to traffic, the report says.

According to traffic engineer Richard Edmonston, it costs about $70,000 to $100,000 to install a traffic signal, with another $2,000 a year required for maintenance. While boulevard stops are a “quick fix” and easy and cheap to install, the study says, they are usually replaced months or years later with signals.

More than 25,000 cars a day travel through the peninsula area during the winter and 29,000 a day during the summer.

There have been 50 pedestrian accidents along the boulevard from 1984 to 1988, according to the city, with 82% occurring at marked crosswalk locations. The greatest number of these accidents, seven, occurred at the Palm Street intersection near the Balboa Pier.

The Austin-Foust report said the majority of pedestrian accidents in a marked crosswalk are the fault of the motorist, while the pedestrian is usually at fault in unmarked crosswalks.