Honk for less traffic

COSTA MESA — Jack Gordon says that if people realize they’re speeding, they’ll slow down.

So he’s come up with an inexpensive device that would let drivers know they’re speeding, and he’s suggesting his idea to city officials.

“We live close to a school, and traffic is limited to 15 miles an hour, and I see cars a block away exceeding 50 miles an hour,” he said. “I don’t want to see somebody get killed.”

City leaders want to hear from people like Gordon, whose idea involves small sensors mounted on utility poles that monitor the speed of passing vehicles.

Complaints come in from neighborhoods all over the city about the same problems: cut-through traffic, speeding drivers and lots of cars on otherwise quiet streets.

Now the city’s traffic engineers, planners and police traffic specialists have launched a concerted effort to learn about residential traffic problems and create a set of standards to address them.

The simpler solutions, such as speed limit signs and stop signs, usually work, city transportation manager Peter Naghavi said.

There are more drastic options — traffic circles, raised medians or speed humps — but those can be as annoying to residents as they are to drivers passing through the neighborhood.

After kicking off the process with a public meeting Thursday, Naghavi will be gathering information through a survey and by speaking to homeowners associations and other groups. He’ll take what he learns and draw up standards for when traffic circles and other measures should be used.

He expects to have a draft of the guidelines in about a year, when another public meeting will be held for input on the draft before it goes to the City Council for approval.

“I’m hoping that this guideline provides us a series of levels and steps that if people want these, we don’t have to sit down and debate it like in the past,” he said.

That people want solutions to their neighborhood traffic problems was clear from the 130 or so residents who came to Thursday’s meeting.

“It’s very busy, and there’s a lot of noise pollution,” said Laura Canfield, who moved to East 19th Street with her husband, Todd, in December. “When we bought the house I thought, I’m going to go to City Hall and see if we can get speed bumps.”

GOT TRAFFIC?

The city of Costa Mesa is collecting information from residents about neighborhood traffic problems to create a set of guidelines for traffic-calming measures such as speed humps and traffic circles. A survey can be obtained by mail and will be posted on the city website next week.

To get the survey or request city Transportation Manager Peter Naghavi to speak to your club or organization about traffic calming, call (714) 754-5182 or e-mail pnaghavi@ci.costa-mesa.ca.us.