Supervisors send a signal to Oak Park

Medea Creek traffic measure gains approval


The Ventura County Board of Supervisors, meeting Oct. 13 in Oak Park for the first time ever, approved the installation of a fourway stop sign in front of Medea Creek Middle School to slow traffic and improve public safety.

A Sept. 22 accident on Doubletree Road that critically injured a sixth grade student provided the impetus for the new stop sign. Roads around Oak Park schools are routinely clogged with cars and students during early morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up times. The boy, who has recovered from his injuries and returned to school on Oct. 12, was hit by a car as he tried to dash across the street to the school.

Supervisor Linda Parks said both the Oak Park Unified School District Board of Education and the Municipal Advisory Council agreed that a four-way stop sign might help to better control the 20minute surges of traffic at the beginning and end of school each day.

The current two-way stop at Doubletree Road and Hollytree Drive has been ineffective, Parks said.

“Parents need to be very careful and follow the law,” Parks said, adding that drivers frequently make illegal U-turns on Doubletree Road near the school. The stop sign will not be a “final answer,” to the traffic issues at the school, but any measure that slows traffic will help, Parks said.

Oak Park resident Beth Katz said the accident at Medea was “inevitable.”

“The next time the outcome could be worse,” she said.

Medea Creek Principal Bradley Benioff said the school was built for 300 students, not the 1,000 that it currently has. He also said students were meant to walk to the school rather than be driven.

Mike Green, a member of Oak Park’s MAC, said the intersection at Doubletree and Hollytree was the most difficult corner in Oak Park.

“That stop sign is going to save someone’s life,” Green said.

Michael Paule, chair of the municipal council, said the traffic problems are compounded by the proximity of Oak Park High School to Medea Creek.

“There are a lot of young drivers,” Paule said. “It’s an odd place not to have a four-way stop sign. If it doesn’t work, remove it. We cannot afford to have another accident.”

Barbara Schwartz of the Medea Creek Parent Faculty Club said another problem is the increase in out-of-district permits for Oak Park schools. Twenty-five percent of the Medea Creek students come from out of the area and those students must be driven to school.

Schwartz said another “big fix” the board should consider is placing a crosswalk on Doubletree.

Signing off

Some residents opposed the four-way stop sign.

Blake Lowry, a resident of the adjacent Shadow Ridge condominium complex, said he’d rather see a more elaborate, flashing, “stop while children are present” sign during the morning and afternoon drop-off periods.

Supervisor Peter Foy voted against the stop sign.

He said once such signs are installed they’re difficult to take away, and that evidence shows when stop signs are put in places people don’t expect, more accidents are likely to occur.

Supervisors Kathy Long, Steve Bennett and John Zaragoza voted in favor of the new signage.

“We really just want to change the behavior of drivers bringing their precious children to school,” Long said. “The sign will change behavior.”

Parks said the new stop sign would be monitored and that if it didn’t help slow traffic, it could be removed.


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