regional<\/a> traffic-mitigation efforts will make a difference.<\/p>\nSusan Kaplan moved to Lakeside a year ago with her boyfriend. She passes through the Riverford Road intersections on a near-daily basis and said roundabouts are not the solution to East County\u2019s worsening traffic problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think that we\u2019re not prepared in Lakeside for learning new traffic flows,\u201d Kaplan said. \u201cI think a two-lane roundabout is incredibly dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notably, each roundabout is planned to be two lanes, with the approach legs being either one or two lanes. That was especially concerning to Kaplan, who said the two-laned roundabouts will lead to \u201cconfusion and conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roundabouts are relatively uncommon in the county. Available data notes approximately 20 to 35 official roundabouts in the city of San Diego, though they are increasingly being proposed across the county as a traffic-mitigating solution.<\/p>\n
As of now, no multi-lane roundabouts exist in the region, though multi-lane or two-lane variations are planned for future projects like Lakeside\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to be Caltrans\u2019 guinea pig, quite frankly,\u201d Kaplan said.<\/p>\n
Lakeside resident Janet Kroupa supports the county\u2019s current design and said she would like to see \u201ceven more\u201d in the unincorporated community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey help the flow of traffic tremendously and accidents are less severe,\u201d Kroupa said. \u201cI will admit, there is a slight learning curve, but once you get the hang of it traffic lights will annoy you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The need for traffic improvements in the area was first identified by Caltrans in 2009, but the area has since seen major growth mainly in industrial warehouse and distribution facilities.<\/p>\n
Notable developments are the Upper San Diego River Improvement Project, which proposes mixed residential and commercial use for the nearly 600 acre area, and River Run East, a major industrial warehouse currently under construction adjacent to the roundabouts site.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis project is expected to create many new jobs, but it will also increase traffic in the area,\u201d a county report reads. \u201cWithout improvements, the added traffic would worsen existing congestion.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cost for the project\u2019s construction is estimated at $29 million, with an overall cost of $43 million. It is mainly being paid for by the county, with additional funding being offset by Lakeside Land Company, the developer of the Upper San Diego River Improvement project.<\/p>\n
David Worsham has resided in East County for over two decades. As a daily commuter in the area, he said he is worried the roundabouts will cause confusion and increase buildup of trucks coming from the surrounding industrial sites.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they\u2019re not going to stop for a red light, I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to, you know, properly yield in a round appointment,\u201d Worsham said. \u201cI just foresee a lot of accidents, at least in the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A proposed project would consolidate four of Lakeside\u2019s busiest signalized intersections at State Route 67 ramps into two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,3053,27015,181,23,100,74,84,76,75,4891,1696],"class_list":["post-491003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-california","tag-east-county","tag-lakeside","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-santee","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}