On Aug. 20, Los Banos held its second workshop on the roundabout planned for the Mercey Springs Road and Vineyard Drive intersection.
The workshop started at 6 p.m. in the community center. It lasted an hour, with Interim Public Works Director Joe Heim giving the main report on the project.
Heim explained that the potential design for the intersection is a single-lane roundabout. Crosswalks will have rapidly flashing beacons that pedestrians can press to slow down traffic.
Vineyard Drive, a major west-to-east road in the Stonewood development, was built in the early 2000s. For 20 years, Vineyard Drive has been disconnected from state Route 165 by 100 feet of dirt.
The intention was always to connect it to Mercey Springs Road, also known as state Route 165.
Unfortunately, the road did not meet the warrants or requirements to be connected to the state route at the time of construction.
The intersection then became conditioned on the completion of what is now the Southgate Subdivision near Pacheco High School. Essentially, the new subdivision’s developer would build the connection.
Unfortunately, the financial crisis of 2007 hit and bankrupted developers in town, including Southgate’s original developer. After the workshop ended, Community and Economic Development Director Stacy Elms explained this background to The Express.
With the intersection never complete, emergency vehicles, deliveries and residents are forced to use Santa Barbara Street, over 2,000 feet south.
The workshop comes a year after the last one on Aug. 1, 2024. Ed Noriega from Mark Thomas & Company explained that the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has the final say on how to construct the intersection.
They heavily emphasized having a roundabout. The city is the project’s main driver, but Caltrans ultimately owns the road.
Heim focused on safety during his report. “Bicycle and pedestrian safety are really the most important aspects of this project,” he stated. Heim said the design keeps speeds down to 20 to 25 mph.
He also mentioned there are only eight conflict points in which vehicles can hit other vehicles, and only eight points pedestrians can be hit, versus the 32 and 24 points for a stoplight.
Heim said that roundabouts decrease crashes by 39 percent and decrease serious injuries by 89 percent. He believes it will increase safety, as the shape forces drivers to slow down and prevents vehicles from T-boning other vehicles.
Heim displayed a graph showing that nine out of 10 pedestrians hit by traffic going at 20 mph survive, while only one out of 10 survives traffic going at 40 mph. “Speeds matter,” he said.
Heim also mentioned pedestrian crashes are reduced by up to 40 percent and bicycle crashes by up to 10 percent.
He reported that the total cost for a roundabout is $2.6 million, while a signal light would be $3.5 million. It would cost more to maintain signals than a roundabout.
Focussing on efficiency, Heim and Noriega reported that on average, motorists will experience less than 6 1/2 second wait times to get on the roundabout.
While at a stoplight, the average wait times will be 22 seconds or more throughout the day. “It’s quite more efficient,” Noriega said.
Residents had a few concerns, the main ones being pedestrian safety, traffic and truck accessibility. Heim assured the public that the rapidly flashing beacons would slow down traffic and that crosswalks would be much shorter than a stoplight.
Caltrans representatives displayed a live video of a similar roundabout to show traffic and trucks handling it properly and traffic flowing.
Mayor Pro Tempore Deborah Lewis was in the audience and requested that they show a roundabout experiencing the same traffic as state Route 165.
While there isn’t currently a live feed, they referred her to a roundabout in Plymouth, CA, that experiences similar traffic and has had very few issues.
District 1 candidate Kalid Sanchez asked about the opinion of the fire and police departments. Police Chief Ray Reyna stated that the police support any development of the intersection.
He said that he supports the roundabout after viewing many of them working efficiently on a recent trip to Oregon. Fire Chief Paul Tualla supported the roundabout due to safer crash statistics and confirmed that firetrucks could handle the curve.
During the meeting, a member of the public changed her mind about the roundabout. She stated that while she was against it at first, Heim’s presentation had convinced her otherwise.
Heim said before beginning the design and environmental process, the next steps include a presentation to the city council in a month.
He stated that funding will come from Measure V, Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funds and more. “We are early in this process, at step one,” Heim said.
Heim encouraged any members of the public wishing to give feedback to email him at joe.heim@losbanos.org.
