This City Is Implementing Street Design That Will Save Lives
This intersection in Capitola, CA, was the site of multiple deadly crashes, which the city has now responded to after hearing the outcry of local advocates. (Source: Stronger Santa Cruz.)
In Capitola, California, residents erupted in protest after Debra Towne, a beloved local senior, was hit and killed walking across a dangerous stroad. Towne’s sudden death was not the first to occur along Bay Avenue, but this tragic crash was the final straw for locals. They showed up en masse to a city meeting asking traffic-calming measures be implemented. After a few months, the city responded with plans for a quick-build project that will reduce the nine-lane intersection to seven lanes. With this change, the most dangerous intersection in Capitola will become safer.
The new, temporary design will use paint and plastic bollards to extend the sidewalk curb and create wider bicycle lanes. These changes at the Bay Avenue and Hill Street intersection will simplify the route for drivers and reduce exposure time for people walking in the road. According to recent studies, design measures like this save lives.
The city says that, beginning spring 2024, once school is out, the temporary design will be in place for nearly a year for a traffic study. Permanent additions will then be decided and implemented.
These changes wouldn’t be happening if not for the voices of locals and the city’s willingness to listen and act.
The Bay Avenue and Hill Street intersection has been under discussion for years. Locals have long complained about how cars can't see them, minor crashes happen frequently, and people are afraid of the space.
From 2017 to December 2023, there were an estimated 12 recorded collisions. At least three of those crashes involved a car striking a person walking along the crosswalk, resulting in injury or death.
With the stroad being a main corridor through town, the city has been hesitant to make serious changes to it out of a fear of it becoming congested. However, the city is recognizing that while also being a main pathway for drivers, it’s a heavily foot-trafficked space, as well. Dotted with shopping centers, schools, and housing, local residents are continuously making their way across the street for work and errands.
That’s why, just before Towne’s death, the local advocacy group Stronger Santa Cruz was in conversation with the city about developing a different intersection. They provided the city with a mock-up of recommendations, and nearly all of their suggestions made it into the final version proposed by the city.
“Be prepared,” advised John Mulry, the group's leader. “Be prepared to be the one standing up and organizing your community to make sure that the tragedy doesn't happen again.”
After Towne’s death, many of her neighbors spoke up about their experiences, spurring forward the efforts for a new design and causing the quick-build project to move faster.
Two women shared how they wear neon vests to walk across the street in the hopes that cars will see them and slow down. “But still they're not seeing me. The cars are not seeing me," resident Nancy Jones said.
By combining locals’ testimonies with recorded collusions, the near-misses and close calls became quick evidence of just how dangerous the intersection truly is.
As an immediate first step, the city responded to residents' concerns by upgrading the intersection's stop signs from regular red octagons to ones with flashing lights. However, this action was not enough. The city recorded that these upgraded stop signs did nothing to change driver behavior and it did not increase safety within the intersection. So, locals kept showing up to city council meetings, asking for more be done to make the road safe.
“The only way to solve our problems is to show up. Even if you lose at first,” said John Mulry, leader of the local advocacy group Stronger Santa Cruz. “If you keep showing up, it eventually gives you influence and the ability to stir change.”
And it’s a good thing locals, Stronger Santa Cruz, and other local advocacy groups continued to have conversations with the city, because now they’re getting a change to the street that will prevent another tragic crash from occurring.
Will the New Design Actually Stick?
There are fears that after the summer, when school is back in session and traffic picks up, that driver complaints might override the needs of those walking and biking—and the temporary redesign measures will be torn down. Locals hope the city will stick to its plan and keep the street-calming design in place for the full time of the study.
“We have to keep the community engaged and remind them when they're sitting in traffic that there is always traffic at this intersection,” said Mulry. “Let us wait through a traffic study to see if this change has actually made traffic so much worse than everyone thinks it does.”
A typical controversy occurs when people see fewer lanes: they immediately assume that traffic is moving slower. But, in reality, that may not be the case.
By simplifying the driver experience, vehicles can be more consistent. With less lanes, there is less time stopped at intersections determining whose turn it is to move forward. So, while the car’s dashboard mile-per-hour meter may not increase, people could be moving through the intersection more easily, thus increasing traffic flow, and making the intersection less hazardous for everyone.
“I love the idea that you can increase flow through enforcing design,” said Mulry.
Seairra Jones serves as the Lead Story Producer for Strong Towns. In the past, she's worked as a freelance journalist and videographer for a number of different organizations. She currently resides between small-town Illinois and the rural Midwest with her husband, where they help manage a family homestead. When Seairra isn’t focusing on how to make our towns stronger, you can find her outside working on the farm, writing fictional tales in a coffee shop, or reading in a hammock.