PUBLIC COMMENT
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
CITY OF SANTA MARIA, CALIFORNIA
Tuesday, August 05, 2025
Consent Calendar Items related to Santa Maria High School Student Commuting
11.d.1 No Stopping Zones on W Morrison Ave
11.d.2 Stop Signs on W Morrison Ave. at S Thornburg St
11.d.3 Passenger Loading Zones on S Thornburg St 7am - 4pm, 5 min
11.d.4 Passenger Loading Zones on W Morrison Ave 7am - 4pm, 5 min
All these items relate mainly to students attending Santa Maria High. The proposals improve convenience for student drop-offs and pick-ups. They do little to enhance pedestrian safety and may reduce it some. In general I would suggest that drop-offs and pick-ups be discouraged and students commute by walking, bicycling and busing be encouraged. This will reduce traffic and increase the health and fitness of students. I suggest that the council might want to ask some questions such as:
• What is the student population of Santa Maria High?
• How many students come by school bus? Public bus? Walk/bike? Car? • Why do each of the students who come by car not walk/bike or bus? • What programs does the High School have to incentivize bus riding, walking and biking?
• What programs does the High School have to disincentivize driving? • The only way to reduce traffic is to provide viable alternatives to driving.
Providing efficient convenient drop-off and pick-up for school students invites more people to drop-off and pick-up students. Providing a pick-up / drop-off zone on W Morrison Ave could increase traffic there. There is already on-campus pick-up/drop-off on W Morrison Ave. The proposed loading zone on the south side of the street is adjacent not to a sidewalk but to a parkway that has some trees in it (and hopefully will have more in the future). The high school has already removed the parkway from in front of the new building and made a barren bus loading zone. I hope they won’t do that here. We need more trees for beauty, shade and clean air.
On West Morrison Ave, the red-curb no-stopping and drop-off/pick-up zones will increase the apparent width of the street thereby making people feel more comfortable driving faster (thereby making left turns from Thornburg harder and increasing pedestrian danger). The stop signs will create queues of cars. They will not necessarily make pedestrians safer (they are not proven counter measures that reduce crashes).
What would improve visibility and reduce cars speeds would be curb extensions at the intersection of West Morrison Ave with S Lincoln St, S. Pine St and S Thornburg St.
Fully implemented curb extensions are like the ones on W Fesler St at N Depot St.
Painted curb extensions with stripe-outs or street murals and flex posts are less expensive but also effective. Here is an example from Orlando:
Curb extensions make pedestrians and cars more visible to each other. The visibly narrower roadway reduces the speed of cars. The extension makes the crossing distance shorter, lessening the time and space that pedestrians are vulnerable to being struck. It also means that cars have to wait less time for pedestrians to cross. A reduced corner radius on the curb extension slows the speed of turning vehicles. With slower cars on Morrison, cars on Thornburg are more easily able to turn left onto Morrison.
The high school currently has pedestrians, drop-offs/pick-ups and buses all converging on W Morrison Ave at S Lincoln St. Putting a loading zone on S Thornburg St is probably a good idea. I suggest that the Council consider sending these items back to staff for further consideration. Please provide them with some goals and priorities (e.g., improve pedestrian safety, reduce drop-offs/pick-ups).
Respectfully yours,
Geoffrey Wheeler PE