On Tuesday, the Antioch City Council provided direction to staff to address traffic concerns in the Sycamore corridor and to bring back traffic calming measures. The item will return for more discussion by April 2023.
The item was originally discussed in September, however, the council veered away from Sycamore and moved towards James Donlon Blvd. Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe brought back the item to specifically focus on Sycamore.
Councilmember Tamisha Torres-Walker stated she did not see the community asking for speed humps, but rather hearing them ask for raised and lit crosswalks, potentially medians with forced turning lanes. She also stated the issue was in the corridor, not just Sycamore Drive which included Spanos and Manzanita, Mahogany, Lemontree and Peppertree.
“I get the goal of making the community safe and hopefully fostering community responsibility for the public safety in the community but there is also safety measures that elected leaders are supposed to make with tax dollars and a lot of that has to do with infrastructure and infrastructure that has not been put in place in decades,” said Torres-Walker. “That is why we have these traffic accidents the way we do particularly in District 1.”
She also added people in District 1 have been asking for these traffic measures “forever and its been slow to come”. She urged the council to consider what the community has recommended, not what the council thinks is best.
Thorpe stated when he talks about speed humps, he was referring to “whatever slows cars down” and it’s the corridor, not just Sycamore Drive.
“Whether its elevated cross walks, a speed hump, the flashing lights, I don’t really care, we can’t sit here and ignore the fact that a 12-year-old was killed,” said Thorpe. “We have to do something. You are the councilmember for that area so I will follow your lead.”
John Samuelson, Public Works Director/City Engineer said they have a toolbox of traffic calming measures they could look at and recommended the council to look at the corridor as a whole and not a single street because when you install traffic calming on one street, people go around to another street to avoid it.
“We are getting very close to being done on James Donlon Blvd to have something to present back and in the process of creating preliminary plans for Sycamore which is the next area we are looking at soon,” said Samuelson.
He also urged the council to consider holding public meetings to get community input.
Mayor Pro Tem Mike Barbanica asked what the timeline might be.
Samuelson said they have finished up 10th Street and hopes to bring James Donlon to council in January while Sycamore would return to the council by April 2023 with a goal to come back faster.
“We have talked trail crossings, we have four grant applications in for enhancing trail crossing, signalize crosswalks, analysis all our schools, we really are trying to focus on traffic safety in general in our city with lots of priorities we are trying to identify and work on and that is the reason for my concern,” explained Samuelson. “It’s a matter of setting the priorities and trying to manage the workload.”
Councilmember Lori Ogorchock agreed that Sycamore needed to be looked at but said the next area needs to be the areas around schools.
Councilmember Monica Wilson asked to add Prewett Ranch to the list.
Thorpe then urged the council to stick to the agenda which was the Sycamore corridor and that councilmembers can bring specific areas to the agenda in the future.
The item will return by April 2023 for more discussion but could do striping, signage and speed feedback signs which could come faster which does not negatively impact neighborhood while medians, speed-humps and closing off roads are longer studies with public meetings which create a longer timeline.
“I am not suggesting we don’t do anything until April, I am just saying long-term for this bigger plan we are envisioning, that’s how much time I would need but we can look to do smaller measures much faster based on feedback on 10th Street and James Donlon,” explained Samuelson.
No other direction was provided.
- Adopted 5 Year CIP 2022-2027
- Antioch Traffic Calming Policy — approved in 2020 (click here)
- Antioch Speed Humps or Speed Cushion Application — click Here
Per a public records request in June, the Antioch Police Department provided crime data, within that data included traffic:
Injury Crashes
- 2013 – 349
- 2014 – 351
- 2015 – 418
- 2016 – 385
- 2017 – 330
- 2018 – 362
- 2019 – 316
- 2020 – 266
- 2021 – 288
Fatal Collisions
- 2013 – 5
- 2014 – 3
- 2015 – 8
- 2016 – 7
- 2017 – 2
- 2018 – 8
- 2019 – 6
- 2020 – 5
- 2021 – 3
DUI Arrests
- 2013 – 143
- 2014 – 149
- 2015 – 150
- 2016 – 182
- 2017 – 170
- 2018 – 210
- 2019 – 168
- 2020 – 133
- 2021 – 110
Antioch City Council Approve Speed Tables
2022 Known Vehicle Crashes in Antioch that resulted in stories:
- Sept. 16: Updated: 3 Children Airlifted After Vehicle Crash on Sycamore Drive in Antioch
- Sept. 5: Updated: 4 Injured in Head-on Crash Involving Tri Delta Transit Bus in Antioch
- July 14: UPDATED: 1 Dead in Vehicle Crash on James Donlon Blvd in Antioch
- July 4: Antioch Police Officer Sustains Minor Injuries After Being Struck by Vehicle
- May 18: Three Injured in Crash on Lone Tree Way in Antioch
- May 15: Antioch Police Respond to Two Sideshows, Officers Vehicles Attacked
- April 18: Update: Man Dies After Striking Tree in Antioch While Possibly Racing Another Vehicle
- March 1: Updated: Pursuit Leads to Crash and Arrest of Carjacking Suspect in Antioch
- Jan 13: Antioch Police Investigating Fatal Hit-and-Run Traffic Crash
Previous Crashes on James Donlon Blvd:
- April 17, 2022: Update: Man Dies After Striking Tree in Antioch While Possibly Racing Another Vehicle
- May 26, 2021: Antioch: Vehicle Crash Shuts Down James Donlon Blvd Friday Morning
- Feb 24, 2021: Updated: Antioch Police Investigating In-Custody Death on James Donlon Road
- Oct. 13, 2020: Antioch: Bicyclist Killed After Being Struck by Vehicle on James Donlon Blvd
- Feb 16, 2020: Antioch Update: 18-Year-Old Female Dies in James Donlon Vehicle Crash
- Feb 15, 2020: Antioch: Driver Injured in Rollover Crash on James Donlon
- Aug 24, 2019: Antioch: 16-Year-Old Killed in Fatal Crash on James Donlon
- July 15, 2019: Antioch: Motorcyclist Airlifted to Local Hospital After Crash on James Donlon
- April 14, 2019: Antioch: Three Suffer Major Injuries After Vehicle Strikes Wall on James Donlon
- Nov 21, 2018: Antioch: 4 Injured in Vehicle Crash on James Donlon, 2 Medical Helicopters Requested
1 comment
Great Work, Chief Dr. S. Ford, and APD Uints. May Yeshua continue to Bless Antioch.
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