County puts brakes on speed bumps for dangerous Springs street

A plan to install speed bumps on a dangerous Boyes Hot Springs street has officially been pushed to the curb. County officials have told Vallejo Street residents that there is no budget to pursue the project that neighbors believe was underway in early 2006.
“Where are my speed bumps?” wonders neighborhood activist Dmitra Smith. “I know the state is strapped for cash, but pushing it under the rug completely is not going to work.”
Ninety residents of the neighborhood had signed a petition, circulated in late 2005, stating that Vallejo Street had “become a dangerous speedway. The threat posed by the reckless drivers must be addressed before tragedy occurs.”
There are no stop signs on Vallejo, which runs parallel to Highway 12, between Highland and Thompson. “There is a lot of reckless driving in the neighborhood,” said Smith. “People are just tearing down the street.”
Vallejo has no sidewalks, forcing pedestrians to maneuver around parked cars. Residents say they like to walk, for recreation and to get to nearby stores, restaurants and the post office, but are afraid of speeding traffic. Parents of small children are particularly fearful.
“I’m worried for neighbor kids, and my five-year-old son,” Smith said. “Many times I have seen drivers swerve around strollers and children.  Many times I have picked up dead squirrels and cats from the street.”
Juanita Brinkley, a 41-year resident of Vallejo Street, said, “It’s truly dangerous. I’m concerned about kids and older folks negotiating the streets without sidewalks.”
Brinkley has helped focus neighborhood attention on the problem over the years. Now Smith has taken the lead, writing the Department of Transportation Board of Supervisors and other officials and keeping the neighborhood group up-to-date by e-mail.
The Department of Transportation had acknowledged the problem in early 2006, Smith said, when officials walked the site to identify locations and workers sprayed markings for the speed bumps. “Everyone was very hopeful,” she said. “Then nothing happened.”
Smith’s initial contact at the DOT was County Traffic Engineer Dave Wallace, who she said initiated the project but later told her it had been cut due to funding issues, and if the residents wanted speed bumps, they would have to pay for them. “He mentioned they were about $3K a piece,” she said. “I am wondering how we went from a plan for speed bumps and markings made, to the project being killed or the residents paying for it?”
No news was forthcoming until several weeks ago, when Smith sent a fresh round of letters to her county contacts. The DOT’s Tom O’Kane, who has since taken the place of the retired Wallace told her in an e-mail “we will take another look at the traffic conditions that you describe.”
“However,” he continued, “we are very short handed at this time – in addition, the Department as a whole has lost 36 positions since March plus almost 25 percent of our total revenue.” New to the post, he said it “will take some time to gather all the various requests and projects that were underway.”
Supervisor Valerie Brown also reiterated the lack of funds to pursue the project. Smith said her next move would be to take the issue before the Springs Redevelopment Advisory Committee.
Meanwhile, cars speed along the Vallejo Street strip, using it as an alternative to Highway 12. Adding to the danger of the narrow street is the lack of a stop sign on Highland at Vallejo, allowing cars to accelerate up the hill and through the right-hand turn. This intersection is the only nearby feeder street from Highway 12 to Vallejo Street without a stop sign.
“Maybe the Highway 12 project has been the priority,” Smith said. “It’s great, but it doesn’t make sense to be so unsafe just a block away.”
Watching the neighborhood change and grow over 41 years, with the influx of families and kids, has been a joy for Brinkley – with one exception. “I love the people here or I wouldn’t stay,” she said. “It’s a great to live here, except the traffic problems.”