Screeching brakes and speeding school buses peppered the
conversation at San Juan Bautista’s town hall meeting Tuesday.
About 15 people engaged in a candid back and forth with City
Council members Arturo Medina, Dan Reed, Chuck Geiger and City
Manager Larry Cain during the two-hour meeting.
Screeching brakes and speeding school buses peppered the conversation at San Juan Bautista’s town hall meeting Tuesday.
About 15 people engaged in a candid back and forth with City Council members Arturo Medina, Dan Reed, Chuck Geiger and City Manager Larry Cain during the two-hour meeting.
Mayor George Rowe and Council member Priscilla Hill had prior engagements and were unable to attend.
San Juan Bautista resident Elayne Reyna, who lives across from the San Juan Inn off of Highway 156, said she watches school buses fly from San Juan Canyon Road toward the Highway 156 intersection every morning. The speed with which they approach the busy juncture causes Reyna a great deal of anxiety, she said.
“It is a really big disaster waiting to happen, and I’ve been told that it’s the Highway Patrol’s jurisdiction, but nothing’s ever been done about it,” she said. “I know we don’t want a speed bump or anything like that, but we have to do something.”
Placing a stop sign about 800 feet before the intersection at Highway 156, on the other side of the Inn, would stop school buses and other motorists from accelerating all the way to the stoplights, Cain said.
“Kids wait for the bus in front of the motel,” he said. “It is dangerous.”
But because the city and county lines cut an odd course through that portion, simply putting in a stop sign or some other type of speed deterrent is tricky, he said.
The section of road where the signs would be placed is on county land, and the county road department denied a request to take the issue to the Board of Supervisors, Cain said.
“They said the traffic and accident count is not enough to warrant a stop sign,” he said. “The traffic board has changed, so I will go back and ask again. I’ll probably get the same response, but it is an accident waiting to happen.”
San Benito County Deputy Sheriff Rich Brown, who oversees San Juan Bautista, recalled only one accident in that vicinity, involving a car and a juvenile on a bike. However, he conceded that it is a dangerous section of road.
San Juan resident Jack Edwards complained about the multitude of truck drivers who apply their ear-piercing compression brakes, also known as “jake brakes.” The truck drivers, instead of using the break pads, down shift and the compression slows the motor. The ensuing sound resonates a grating pitch throughout the entire town, Reed said.
“They hit that, and it’s a sound like you wouldn’t believe,” Reed said, “and at 3 o’clock in the morning there’s no reason.”
Edwards asked the Council if any signs could be put in place on Highway 156 to warn against their use.
Highway 156 is a Caltrans highway and any sign placed on it without Caltrans approval will be taken down, Reed said.
Resident George Dias Jr. suggested pulling truckers over when they are driving on “straight pipes,” which means they’re using a modified exhaust system.
“Everybody knows when they’re running straight pipes,” Dias said. “Pull them over, and if it doesn’t have a muffler, you give six of them tickets out, problem solved. It’s gonna be all over the state in 10 hours.”
Brown agreed to speak to his superior and begin enforcing that to cut down on the excessive noise.
Also discussed were the copious political signs placed around the town for the March primary and those advertising for the November regular election.
San Benito County, unlike some other areas of the state, doesn’t have any regulations regarding political signs’ size, shape or prevalence, said resident Susan Brady.
Council members agreed with Brady that installing an ordinance placing some perimeters around the signs could occur in the future.
“There’s no excuse for what goes on in this town,” Brady said. “Especially in the historic district.”
