City Officials Take Steps to Improve Manteca Streets and Enhance Public Safety
MANTECA, CALIF. The City of Manteca created a Traffic Solutions Committee in 2022 to improve and create safety solutions on the City’s streets. This multi-departmental group is led by the City’s Director of Public Works, Carl Brown. Through various measures, the committee analyzes safety concerns and brings viable solutions to the City.
As Director of Public Works, Brown has a multitude of responsibilities including streetlights, traffic signal operation, signs and markings, curbs and sidewalks, and environmental compliance. “We constantly work on improving efficiencies and effectiveness of processes and programs and ensure that all services continue to be performed as our citizens expect, he explains.
“Improving traffic safety and reducing pedestrian injuries is the top priority of the Traffic Solutions Committee in Manteca,” Brown stresses. A few of the enhancements include the following.
City traffic improvements such as flashing stop signs that increase visibility so people are more likely to stop. This also reduces right-angle crashes by alerting drivers of upcoming roadway changes, so they do not unintentionally run the stop sign. “Right-angle crashes are the most common type of crash that results in a fatality or serious injury at stop sign-controlled intersections,” Brown adds.
New high-visibility crosswalks ensure that pedestrians and drivers have safer access when crossing the street. These alert pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists to designated pedestrian crossing areas and help give drivers enough time to react to pedestrians on the road.
Speed lumps (yes, lumps, not bumps or humps), are on Hacienda Ave. and North Walnut Ave. These lumps slow down speeding cars in the neighborhoods. The speed lump is a variation on the speed hump, adding two-wheel cut-outs designed to allow large vehicles, such as emergency vehicles and buses, to pass with minimal slowing.
The Committee is updating and adding pavement markings, yield limit lines, warning signs, red curbs, and street parking markings to decrease traffic accidents. A yield line, also called shark’s teeth or give-way line, is a marking used to inform drivers of the point where they need to yield and give priority to the oncoming vehicle or pedestrian traffic at an intersection or roundabout controlled by a yield sign.
For more information call the City Manager’s office at (209) 456-8000, email Feedback@manteca.gov, or go online to https://www.manteca.gov.
Manteca is a full-service City with police, fire, public works, water, trash, and sewer services. For more information call the City Manager’s office at (209) 456-8000, email Feedback@manteca.gov, or go online to https://www.manteca.gov.
Incorporated in 1918, Manteca has a diverse population of 86,928. Manteca continues to grow at 4.1 percent a year. The City has 25,670 households with a median home price of $432,100. The median annual household income is $82,538.
Tags: Carl Brown, Director 0f public works, flashing stop signs, high-visibility crosswalks, manteca, pavement markings, red curbs, Speed lumps, street parking markings, Traffic Solutions Committee, warning signs, yield limit lines