NEWPORT BEACH : City Urged to Slow 15th Street Traffic

Cecile Cook wants to put the brakes on 15th Street.

In the past year, three of her neighbors have been hit by cars while crossing the busy street, and a car that police said was traveling 70 m.p.h. flipped and ended up in Cook’s yard.

No one has been seriously injured yet, but traffic and speeds on the street have increased dramatically, and a disaster is possible anytime, Cook said.

So Cook and other residents of the Newport Heights neighborhood are urging the city to install speed bumps, post stop signs or set up barricades to deter speeders between Irvine and Newport boulevards.

“The speeding is dangerous. Someone is going to get hit. I hear the brakes screeching all the time,” Cook said.

“Will it take a catastrophe to happen before the city steps in to do something about it?” she asked, adding that she fears for her 8-year-old daughter who crosses the street to get to Newport Heights Elementary School.

“Fifteenth Street is really bad news right now. There’s no such thing as people going 25 m.p.h.”

The city’s Traffic Affairs Committee met last week to discuss the 15th Street problems with the concerned residents. Traffic engineer Richard Edmonston said traffic and speed studies will be conducted in Newport Heights. He said preliminary studies show that traffic on the street has increased in the past year by 25% to 30%, mainly due to drivers trying to avoid 16th Street, where speed bumps were installed last year.

Depending on the results of the studies to be conducted later this month, the City Council will decide on what traffic controls should be used, Edmonston said.

The street, however, isn’t all in Newport Beach. About half is in Costa Mesa territory, Edmonston said. He will meet with Costa Mesa officials later this month to discuss the residents’ concerns, he said.

Residents are also upset over heavy commercial vehicles using the street as a cross-town route and want signs posted restricting commercial vehicles of over three tons, Cook said.