Supervisors call for signal at S. Mission Road and Green Canyon Road

The intersection of South Mission Road and Green Canyon Road has been added to the county's Traffic Signal Priority List.

A 4-0 San Diego County Board of Supervisors vote January 11, with Greg Cox at a California Coastal Commission meeting, added South Mission Road and Green Canyon Road to the list of intersections where traffic signals will be installed when funding and design issues allow.

"I might be able to speed it up," said Supervisor Bill Horn. "I might be able to fund that out of my Neighborhood Reinvestment Program money."

If an intersection is placed on the Traffic Signal Priority List, priority points rather than the length of time on the list determine the next intersection to be signalized when funding becomes available. Priority points are based on vehicular volume, pedestrian volume, flow interruption reduction, hazard reduction, coordinated movement potential, and special conditions. The county's Department of Public Works (DPW) reviews intersections on the priority list annually to revise priority points. Design readiness issues may allow a lower-ranked intersection to be signalized first, as can grant funding for a specific intersection.

The county's Traffic Advisory Committee voted 8-0 with one abstention October 28 to recommend that the intersection of South Mission Road and Green Canyon Road be placed on the county's Traffic Signal Priority List, which sent the proposal to the Board of Supervisors for the January 11 hearing. On the morning of December 15 Bonsall resident Patrick Germon was killed when he attempted to make a left turn from Green Canyon Road onto South Mission Road and was hit by a vehicle traveling along South Mission Road.

"We ask that you pass it for Fallbrook," said Jeannine Huffman, who is Germon's daughter. "We've lost too many lives."

Germon and his wife, Elizabeth, had been married for 45 years. "This is something not only for us but anybody who goes there," Elizabeth Germon said. "There are quite a few people in Fallbrook that are very concerned about this."

Huffman informed the supervisors that two additional accidents at that intersection occurred after her father's death.

"It is really bad going left, and it's really bad going right," she said. "It's a blind corner, so it needs a light."

Huffman noted that drivers entering South Mission Road from Green Canyon Road have obstacles other than the curve.

"There's a big bush and a big pole," she said.

The Germon family moved from Pacific Palisades to Fallbrook in 1994. Elizabeth Germon worked for the Fallbrook Union Elementary School District before retiring, and Huffman currently works for the elementary school district.

"You have buses going that way," Huffman said. "I know kids on that bus."

South Mission Road has no signals between State Route 76 and Winter Haven Road, which is a distance of approximately four miles.

"People are driving it like a speedway," Huffman said.

The speed limit on South Mission Road at Green Canyon Road is 50 mph.

"People do 50, 55, and they're not slowing down around the curves," said Green Canyon Road resident Norma Sanfilippo.

"There are people who go around each other to get through the traffic," Huffman said.

The proposed signal was slated to be discussed during the TAC's December 2014 meeting, but was pulled off that agenda to allow the Fallbrook Community Planning Group to provide input. Although the intersection met signal warrants in 2014, the community planning group was concerned about potential adverse impacts to the traffic flow and recommended that DPW consider potential alternatives to signalization

including exploring line-of-sight concerns, straightening the road at that intersection, additional turn lanes, and flashing lights.

DPW agreed to conduct a field review, including sight distances, and then return the matter to the planning group for further input. In April 2016 the planning group unanimously endorsed the signal in conjunction with requests for review of potential traffic calming and sight distance improvement measures.

South Mission Road is a two-lane through highway which is 50 feet wide north of its intersection with Green Canyon Road and 45 feet wide south of that intersection. South Mission Road has edge striping along both sides of the roadway as well as median striping, and a left turn pocket at the intersection allows southbound traffic to turn onto

Green Canyon. South Mission Road is classified as a Boulevard in the Mobility Element network of the county's general plan.

Other than the stop sign where Green Canyon Road ends at South Mission Road, Green Canyon Road is also a two-lane through highway with median striping and edge striping on both sides. Green Canyon Road is classified as a Light Collector in the general plan's Mobility Element. It is approximately 30 feet wide, and no speed limit has ever been formalized.

The December 2014 consideration used collision data for a 67-month period from January 1, 2009, to July 31, 2014; during that period four collisions including two which involved injury were reported. During the 62-month period between January 1, 2011, and February 29, 2016, six collisions were reported at the intersection.

DPW did not conduct a new traffic volume survey between the preparation for the December 2014 meeting and the October 2016 meeting. A multi-day October 2014 traffic survey revealed a two-way average daily volume of 10,570 northbound vehicles on South Mission Road south of Green Canyon Road, 10,230 southbound vehicles on South Mission Road north of Green Canyon Road, and 1,160 westbound vehicles on Green Canyon Road east of South Mission Road. The previous traffic survey at that intersection was taken in August 1995, when the average daily volume was 9,240 northbound, 7,960 southbound, and 640 westbound vehicles.

The intersection met, based on data provided to the TAC, volume warrants for a signal but not collision warrants which are often the result of drivers gambling that enough space exists between the intersection and the through traffic with the right of way.

The intersection meets the eight-hour vehicular volume, four-hour vehicular volume, and roadway network warrants for a signal. The eight-hour volume warrant for a rural intersection with a single approach lane requires eight separate hours with at least 525 vehicles on the major street and 53 vehicles on the minor street; the intersection of South Mission Road and Green Canyon Road meets that criteria for the hours beginning at 6:00 a.m., 7:00 a.m., 8:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m., and 5:00 p.m.

The four-hour thresholds of 350 vehicles for the major street and 84 vehicles for the minor street were met between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. and between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. The roadway network criteria include a minimum of 1,000 vehicles per hour, a highway system serving as a principal network for through traffic, a rural or suburban highway entering or traversing a town, and designation as a major route on an official plan. The intersection did not meet the peak-hour delay, pedestrian volume, school crossing, coordinating signal system, crash, or railroad crossing warrants.

"This should be a number one funding if people die," Elizabeth Germon said.

Each county supervisor has a discretionary Neighborhood Reinvestment Program budget which is intended to provide grants to non-profit organizations for the furtherance of public purposes at the regional and community levels. In addition to non-profit organizations, supervisors can also fund schools and fire departments and can also use money from their budgets to supplement other county funding for specific county projects such as parks, roads, and libraries. Each supervisor recommends the allocation of his or her Neighborhood Reinvestment Program funds, although those allocations must be approved by a majority of the board. Currently each supervisor has a $2 million annual Neighborhood Reinvestment Program budget.

Although Neighborhood Reinvestment Program funding could allow the signal to be installed earlier than its ranking on the priority list would warrant, the design issues for three-way intersections often include private land or terrain elevation differences on the other side of the road which ends. Horn noted that design impediments may cause delays in the finalization of having the signal ready for a construction contract to be awarded. "I'll leave that up to the engineers," he said.