City Aims to Reduce Severe and Fatal Collisions

In an effort to reduce severe and fatal traffic collisions, the City of Santa Barbara is proposing to revamp the Carrillo Street and San Andres Street intersection by reconstructing its pedestrian crossings, adding pedestrian access ramps for the crossing at Carrillo and San Pascual Street, and including 29 new light fixtures along Carrillo between Bath Street and Miramonte Drive. The Architectural Board of Review unanimously agreed Monday that the project was important for safety, but its members wanted aesthetic details like lighting-styles and potential landscaping to be more clearly defined before proceeding.

The city’s transportation staff said the accidents in the intersection most commonly occur when vehicles turning left from Carrillo onto San Andres collide with vehicles going straight through either direction. The staffer added that the collisions most commonly occur at night, hence the need for the street lights. 

The city plans to improve pedestrian safety by realigning the crosswalks to be more perpendicular with the roadway, shortening them from 88 to 65 feet at Carrillo’s western crossing and 85 to 56 feet at its eastern crossing. It also plans to construct a pedestrian enhancement crosswalk at Carrillo and San Pascual Street by installing a median island with buff pavers, also giving pedestrians a shorter commute across a large, busy intersection.