Supervisors allow golf cart use on Dulin Road

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors ratified a Traffic Advisory Committee recommendation which will designate the 4600 block of Dulin Road as a combined use roadway in which golf cart traffic is permissible.

The supervisors’ 5-0 vote May 10 designates the 0.4-mile segment of Dulin Road from Old Highway 395 westerly to the end of the street as a combined use road. Once the ordinance takes effect June 16, residents and others will legally be able to drive golf carts on the road.

“We’re very pleased that they accepted it,” Rancho Monserate Country Club Homeowners Association member Orlo Deeds said of the supervisors’ action. “It was a problem that had been there for a long time.”

On March 10 the Traffic Advisory Committee reviewed a request by the Rancho Monserate Country Club Homeowners Association and recommended that the supervisors approve the combined use designation. “They want to be able to drive their golf carts on Dulin Road,” said Supervisor Bill Horn.

Dulin Road is classified as a light collector on the county’s Circulation Element map. The two-lane roadway measures 62 feet in width, including a planted median separating the two directions of travel. The street currently has one golf cart crossing zone 1,220 feet west of Old Highway 395. Because of a senior citizen facility in the area, the 25 mph speed limit is not subject to prevailing traffic flow findings.

Rancho Monserate is a secluded neighborhood consisting of mobile homes in a golf course setting. Most of the travel within the development is by golf cart including trips between homes and the clubhouse or golf course as well as running errands and visiting neighbors. While the homes are on one side of the street, the golf course and clubhouse are on the other side of the street. “To get to the facilities we have to cross this road,” said Don Hall of the Rancho Monserate Country Club Homeowners Association.

The existing golf cart crossing works well for residents using that access point, but 15 homes along the north side of Dulin Road at the west end could not legally access the golf course or clubhouse by golf cart without the combined road designation. “This straightened it up for us,” Deeds said.

The Rancho Monserate Country Club Homeowners Association had provided the TAC with an alternate request to establish two additional golf cart crossings on Dulin Road, but the block met all of the criteria required for designation as a combined use road. The roadway is adjacent or provides access to a golf course (the road does both; the California Vehicle Code only requires one of those conditions), the posted speed limit is 25 mph, the roadway is between the golf course and where golf carts are parked and stored, the roadway is within or bounded by a real estate development offering golfing facilities, and the roadway is designed and constructed so that regular vehicular traffic and golf carts can both be accommodated safely.

A traffic county at Dulin Road west of Via San Manzania was taken in February 2006 and revealed a two-way average daily volume of 200 vehicles. The previous traffic survey along Dulin Road occurred in May 1993 when a survey west of Old Highway 395 indicated an average two-way daily volume of 550 vehicles. No reported collisions along that segment of road occurred between July 31, 2002, and July 31, 2005.

The Traffic Advisory Committee noted that golf cart users must be cautious and must recognize that the rules of the road will still apply. The TAC added that if future development is to occur the combined use designation will need to be revisited, which was acceptable to the Rancho Monserate Country Club Homeowners Association.

“They did exactly what was necessary,” Hall said. “It should make it a lot safer for us.”

The TAC’s recommendation for the combined use roadway caused the alternate request for the golf cart crossings to be abandoned, but the road meets all criteria for a golf cart crossing.

The supervisors’ May 10 ratifications of the March 10 TAC recommendations also approved yield controls for northbound and westbound Summit Avenue traffic approaching the intersection of Beech Street. The predominant moves at that intersection are turns from southbound to westbound and from eastbound to northbound. A stop sign is warranted when the safe approach speed is under 10 mph while yield signs are advised when the safe approach speed is between 10 and 20 mph. The southbound safe approach speed was determined to be 13 mph while the westbound safe approach speed was assessed at 11 mph.