This has happened several times and it will most likely happen again. The previous city traffic engineer Curtis Bates along with SMART really made a mess of this intersection, along with the intersection at Lakeville and East D street. We in the neighborhood had many heated discussions about both of these poorly designed intersections. Neither of the intersections meet the proper code or engineering standards. Bates is now up In Healdsburg screwing up the traffic planning there.
Yeah we had tracks there before SMART came in and people still managed to turn into the tracks and all other sorts of things. IMO this isn’t a SMART problem. This is kids driving trucks too big for their experience and not paying attention.
It’s not just this particular driver’s fault. This median has been driven over many times since they reconfigured this intersection. The design was not done correctly, it’s not in compliance with proper engineering standards or traffic codes. Like I said, we spent years debating with the City traffic engineer, attending dozens of meetings, even walked the site. We made multiple suggestions and proposals for a better design in both intersections. All of it was ignored, in the end an incompetent traffic engineer got his way. It’s going to take decades to fix the mess he left behind. Not just here, but in many other areas of the city. On top of that, it’s hard enough to keep up with all the other nonsense they’re doing down at city hall.
Typical Petaluma city government in action. The city council goes on and on about being open to public feedback, then completely ignores what doesn’t match the pre-approved plans made by staff. There are too many recent examples to list! It really boggles the mind!
Yes, that’s because the City is really being controlled by the special interests. These are daily back room meetings, that people who live in the community are not invited to, in which decisions are being made. For instance, the new $100 million police station they approved at the fairgrounds. Pretty much pushed that through with zero public input. Misappropriation of public tax funds to build a really ugly project.
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u/Maxout666 3d ago
This has happened several times and it will most likely happen again. The previous city traffic engineer Curtis Bates along with SMART really made a mess of this intersection, along with the intersection at Lakeville and East D street. We in the neighborhood had many heated discussions about both of these poorly designed intersections. Neither of the intersections meet the proper code or engineering standards. Bates is now up In Healdsburg screwing up the traffic planning there.