Here are the traffic safety projects coming to Sonoma in 2024

The city of Sonoma Public Works Department has planned numerous projects in 2024 to improve pedestrian safety, slow drivers and reduce traffic on residential streets across Sonoma Valley.

While some of these projects will be relatively easy to implement, such as adding a lighted stop sign, other projects may take multiple years to address long-standing issues.

At a Traffic Safety Committee meeting Nov. 7, Public Works Director Mike Berger discussed the benefits and obstacles that will come to Sonoma’s streets in 2024 and beyond.

Verano Avenue and Highway 12

After numerous traffic crashes resulted in deaths of pedestrians at El Verano Avenue and Highway 12 in recent years, the city of Sonoma, along with Caltrans, Sonoma County Water Agency and the Sonoma County Transportation Authority, will revamp the intersection for drivers and pedestrians.

Dedicated left-turn lanes will be implemented over the next two to three years in the eastbound and westbound lanes of El Verano Avenue, Berger said. Berger acknowledged what he foresaw as residents’ frustration as a “fast-tracked” Caltrans process, which will take years to evaluate, plan and execute the new intersection.

“The fact that they did that is a little bit commendable because that’s not typical,” he said. ”Caltrans has a way of doing things. They follow a very regimented design process and planning process and they don’t cut corners.”

In 2020, Raymond Carillo, 78, was struck and killed at the Verano Avenue intersection. In March 2021, James Pendergast, 85, was killed after being hit by a work van while attempting to cross the north side of the intersection, causing his hat and shoes to be “thrown clear of his body,” the Index-Tribune reported at the time.

Most recently, on Jan. 16, 2023, 36-year-old Julio Estrada was killed after being struck by a pickup truck while walking a dog in the crosswalk that spans Highway 12.

Earlier this year, the city of Sonoma, in partnership with Sonoma County and its water agency, installed pedestrian safety lighting at the intersection to address a blind spot at an island as an interim solution.

But the intersection overhaul hopes to ease traffic and prevent further pedestrian deaths at the intersection in future years.

City of Sonoma projects

There will also be projects to add lighted pedestrian stops along major streets in Sonoma and radar signs to pressure drivers to slow down.

The Public Works Department will add four additional crosswalk beacons — known as rectangular rapid-flashing beacons — on Broadway, a lighted stop sign at the Andrieux Street and Fifth Street West intersection and two radar speed signs on Fifth Street West and Broadway.

“Those RRFBs, the locations at France, Andrieux and Patten, those are replacing in-ground lighted crossings,” Berger said. “That was pretty much a no-brainer to be able to put those where we had in-ground lighted crossings … Malet (Street), that was at the high school.”

In upcoming fiscal years, future beacons may be deployed on Second Street West, Fifth Street West at Studley Street and Fifth Street West, according to Public Works Department documents.

Currently, the Public Works Staff has deployed two beacons along Broadway at Clay and France streets to increase visibility and alert drivers to the presence of pedestrians.

Berger also outlined plans to seek more data on Spain Street West of Sonoma Plaza, Fifth Street West and Fifth Street East to track vehicle speed and traffic volume.

Spain Street

The Public Works Department currently plans to repave Spain Street next summer, Berger said, where contractors will street striping, signage and red curb painting.

The department will also review the potential addition of a traffic circle at Spain Street and Third Street West.

Residents of Spain Street have written the Public Works Department multiple times to describe unsafe conditions for pedestrians who visit and use schools, churches, the bike path and Gen. Vallejo’s Home Sonoma State Historic Park located on the street.

“This is going to require some plans, it’s going to require a little bit of engineering, but this thing could be installed in a couple, three days at the most,” Berger said. “With the blessing of the city’s traffic engineer, something like this is an option in the near future.”

West Spain Street has become a “Highway 12 bypass” for both personal vehicles and commercial trucks and buses which residents claim has caused increased traffic in the neighborhood, according to a letter from the Citizens of Spain Street to the Public Works Department.

“Last year, a pedestrian was seriously injured and his dog was killed by a driver who failed to yield as the individual used the crosswalk at W. Spain Street and 3rd Street W.,” the citizens’ letter said. “That pedestrian has yet to fully recover.”

Contact Chase Hunter at chase.hunter@sonomanews.com.