Safety Check Ordered for Highway

Concerned that traffic has increased to dangerously high levels, Ventura County supervisors Tuesday created a panel to look into ways to improve safety along Santa Rosa Road near Camarillo.

The action comes two months after a 14-year-old Camarillo honor student was struck and killed as she jogged along the two-lane stretch with her father.

Residents of Santa Rosa Valley said creation of the group, made up of local homeowners and government representatives, is a good first step in correcting problems along the six-mile corridor that connects Moorpark and Thousand Oaks with Camarillo.

“We’ve got a major thoroughfare going right through a residential area,” said Ruth Means, president of the Santa Rosa Valley Community Homeowners Assn. “Safety is our main concern.”

On Tuesday, a county transportation manager outlined ways traffic can be slowed to the posted 55 mph limit or lower.

The county could install a “roundabout” that would slow motorists as they circulate around a central island, said Butch Britt, a transportation deputy director. Narrower lanes, landscaped medians, radar speed trailers and cautionary signs are also options with widely varying costs, Britt said.

Britt said county studies show traffic trips have increased from 5,000 per day in the 1970s to 25,000 per day last year. Nevertheless, he said, accidents have remained relatively low and motorists drive at an average 58 mph, just three miles over the posted limit.

“We don’t have an overly unsafe road on Santa Rosa Road,” Britt told supervisors.

Supervisor Frank Schillo disputed Britt’s figures, saying he had done his own study and found a higher number of accidents than the county reported. Schillo, whose district includes a portion of Santa Rosa Valley, said he also is concerned about local residents’ ability to turn onto the highway from side streets.

“They are putting their lives in danger trying to get out on that road,” Schillo said.

Britt did not make specific recommendations on which techniques would be most effective. But he indicated one strategy that has worked well in Camarillo could also be applied to Santa Rosa Road.

Camarillo was able to get motorists to drive about 45 mph on Las Posas Road by narrowing lane widths and installing landscaped medians, he said. Widening the corridor to four lanes would also improve safety, Britt said.

Those combined improvements would cost about $18.7 million, he said.

Santa Rosa residents, however, have indicated they will not support any move to widen the two-lane road. Residents fear doing so would spoil the area’s semirural environment, one marked by rolling hills dotted with horse ranches and estates.

The panel is expected to recommend proposed improvements, along with a method of paying for them, to the Board of Supervisors within six months. Supervisors will make the final decisions on any changes.