Fast driving on Oak Hills Drive is also cause for alarm

By Sophia Fischer  sfischer@theacorn.com

Oak Park community leaders say they want drivers to stop speeding down Oak Hills Drive, a winding road that runs from Kanan Road to Sunnycrest Drive, behind Oak Park High School.

"It's a simple reality that people fly down that street," said Todd Haines, member of the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council. "It's an accident waiting to happen."

A traffic study requested by the council did not yield the results Haines and other MAC members had hoped for. The results were presented during the Jan. 22 MAC meeting by Ventura County traffic engineer Richard Herrera. Aside from installing updated traffic control signs and repainting faded red curbs at intersections, there isn't much else that county engineers could recommend, Herrera said.

The council called for a new, more thorough study with results to be presented at the Feb. 26 MAC meeting.

"The study just counted cars. They need to survey Calle Rio Vista when school gets out or when sports are going on over the weekend," MAC member Mike Green said.

The MAC asked for an analysis last June after hearing from concerned residents along Oak Hills Drive.

During a 24-hour period on Tues., Sept. 25, the Ventura County Transportation Department conducted a traffic count and speed survey along Oak Hills Drive between Avenida de Los Lobos and Avenida Soledad.

Oak Hills Drive carries a reported 1,500 vehicles per day, with most of the traffic occurring during school hours.

Between 1997 and 1999 there were fewer than three accidents along the two-lane Oak Hills Drive. In addition, there was one collision at the intersection of Oak Hills Drive and Calle Rio Vista between January 2004 and December 2006, according to the Sept. 25 report. Those figures are less than the statewide average accident rate of 2.95 crashes for similar streets.

"If there was a high accident rate that would warrant change, but it's a pretty normal rate compared to other similar areas based on what we found," Herrera said.

"Ninety-five percent of the time that street has very little traffic," he said.

Eighty-five percent of the drivers go 39 mph even though the speed limit is 35.

State regulations require speed limits on roads to be set at the speed that 85 percent of the drivers are traveling. The idea is that a realistic speed limit will be complied with, while a speed limit that is too low will be ignored.

"If we try to lower the speed it becomes unenforceable," Herrera said. "We have to follow the law."

Communities can set speed limits within 5 mph of how fast the majority of motorists are driving.

If the majority continues driving 39 mph along Oak Hills Drive, the speed limit could be changed from the current 35 mph to 40 mph, Herrera said.

The MAC's suggestion to add two stop signs at Medea Creek Lane and Calle Rio Vista to help slow traffic is unwarranted and not recommended by traffic engineers. Herrera said accidents can happen when motorists come upon an unexpected stop sign. But MAC Chair Jay Kapitz pointed out that multiway stop signs added to Rockfield Street and North Tuscany Drive last May were successful in slowing the traffic on those streets.

Robert Hardy, who lives off Oak Hills Drive, supports adding stop signs.

"That street is very dangerous early in the morning and late in the day," Hardy said. "I classify it as a country road but sometimes it becomes a racetrack. Something needs to be done."