For people living near Meridian Street and Clearview Drive, the
roadways are more like a raceway than neighborhood streets.
For people living near Meridian Street and Clearview Drive, the roadways are more like a raceway than neighborhood streets.
Drag racing, tire “burnouts” and fast driving dominate the area, neighborhood residents said.
“We’ve had this problem for the last two years,” said Laurette Chandler, who lives on Clearview Drive. “Traffic has progressed as people moved out to the Cerra Vista area. They get to Highway 25 through Clearview. We became the main thoroughfare.”
At a meeting held by the Hollister officials this week, staff and Council met with residents to discuss the Meridian Corridor Traffic Study that was commissioned by Council last month.
Residents expressed concerns about drivers speeding in school zones, unsafe driving on Clearview Drive, double parking at Ladd Lane School, police enforcement and narrowing Meridian Street to two lanes. City officials verified at the meeting that a new stoplight was in the works at Meridian and Chappel.
“It’s a valid concern and the speed on that road has got to be addressed,” said Hollister Mayor Tony LoBue, who attended the meeting. “This study will give us some options we can actually implement.”
The debate has been an ongoing one. Beginning November 2001, area residents began pressuring Council to help ease speeding and traffic on the streets after two accidents injured six children. Residents of Clearview called for the street to blocked off, establishing a dead-end at Meridian.
Although a dead-end was not deemed feasible, the result of the efforts was new stop signs at Meridian and Recht, Clearview and Meridian and Clearview at Matador.
Also, Council added a 1,000-foot extension to the 25 mph speed limit on Meridian west of Marguerite Maze Middle School.
City officials hired the transportation consulting firm Fehr and Peers to tackle the job of making the streets safer with a projected cost of $7,500, at the time of the contracts approval. Two representatives of the firm listened to comments from neighbors and answered questions during the meeting.
The main problem is the safety of children that walk to Ladd Lane School on a street with heavy traffic, said resident Mike Smith, whose son was involved in an accident on Meridian Street that injured five children.
Residents also have a difficult time turning onto Meridian from Vintage and LaBaig streets, he said.
In a letter to City Engineer David Rubcic, Smith wrote:
“The planning and engineering that went into the original design of the extension of Meridian Street are lacking in basic safety features and principles.
“Please do your utmost to accommodate the desire of the community which is to implement a pedestrian-friendly and vehicle traffic calming zone for the benefit of the hundreds of children who use the sidewalk on this busy street on their way to school.”
Since March 2000 there have been 41 accidents in the area, said Hollister Police Chief Bill Pierpoint.
For Chandler, who lives on Clearview, entering and exiting her driveway has been a dangerous situation because of speeding drivers.
“I’ve nearly been broadsided at least a dozen times trying to come out of my driveway. I also nearly get rear-ended coming into my driveway,” she said.
Chandler said the new stop signs have not helped slow traffic, with many drivers ignoring the signs. She said police do not enforce traffic laws in the area.
The two motorcycle policemen who do speed radar monitoring have been out on injury for a couple of months, Pierpoint said.
“There are a lot of areas of town that have a higher amount of traffic incidents,” Pierpoint said. “(Speed) is one of the major factors, but not the primary collision factor (of the area).”
