The Coalition-sponsored public meeting was held on June 21, 2016 at 7:00pm at the San Pedro School Multi-Purpose Room. The meeting was a follow-up event of the Coalition-sponsored meeting held in October of last year, Among those in attendance were Marin County Supervisor Damon Connolly, San Rafael City Council Member Andrew McCullough, San Rafael Public Works Director Bill Guerin and San Rafael School Board Member Greg Knell.
The meeting was conducted by Kevin Hagerty, Chairman of the Coalition’s Roadway Committee. Assisting him with the presentation and addressing questions were Kevin McGowan, Assistant Director of San Rafael Public Works Department, Captain Glen McElderry, San Rafael Police Department, and Robert Goralka from the County Department of Public Works.
There were approximately 50 people from the community who attended the meeting.
Information presented in the meeting is shown in the attached Power Point presentation.
After the formal presentation City and County staff spend over an hour receiving comments and answering questions from the audience.
Moving Forward:
- Incremental Approach to Problem Solving
The HOA and San Pedro School Working Groups will continue their incremental approach to addressing Roadway traffic and safety issues. The Working Groups will continue to meet periodically and with the cooperation of City and County staff will continue to identify issues and implement solutions. The Working Groups and City and County staff will analyze the results and then, if necessary, make needed adjustments.
2. Enforcement
The HOA and San Pedro School Working Groups are in agreement that there is significant need for an enforcement component for all of the strategies that are adopted. The two Working Groups believe we need to move forward with enforcement even if doing so would result in the speed limit being increased on most parts of the PSPR from 35 mph to 40 mph. That new speed limit is within the average range at which drivers and now actually traveling. Failure to increase the speed limit now will result in the likelihood that the speed limit would have to be increased to an even higher level in the future as drivers travel faster without any enforcement.
In setting the speed limit speed, State law requires that local jurisdictions conduct roadway speed surveys and to set speed limits using the average speed that 85th percentile of drivers are traveling. On most of Point San Pedro Road this number is 42 mph. The local jurisdiction was the ability to round this number to the nearest 5 mph figure. The speed surveys on PSPR were conducted in 2016 and are valid for seven years.
The City’s Police Captain Glen McElderry, in charge of its Traffic Division told the HOA Working Group and June 21 meeting audience that his Department is committed to providing adequate enforcement on PSPR that will serve as a deterrent to drivers speeding on the Roadway.