125 replies to this topic

[Sibley Resident]

That is an excellent suggestion and thank you for considering the issues. We have considered this scenario but because of the sheer volume of vehicles and the congestion this is causing on Sibley it is already pushing this up into the rest of the neighborhood (Reading, Wool, Decatur and Persifer). If we were to put in the no left hand turns on Sibley for Bidwell and Natoma during specific points of the day, there is a valid concern among some residents and the traffic engineers on the committee that this would only continue to push them up into the rest of the neighborhood to access Natoma to Folsom Blvd and not move them onto Folsom Blvd before the residential portion. This would benefit a few of us and make things worse for others in the neighborhood.

There are a lot of safety issues we have concerns about and emergency vehicles are one of them. This concern is generated largely when the emergency vehicles are relocated to Glenn not Natoma and will be going with the flow of traffic and not against it. When the two arterial roads surrounding us are congested and the one residential street that they can reach us on is also congested, the emergency response vehicles have to navigate this adding to there response times. I feel that anyone, driving, shopping or visiting this side, not only residence should be concerned about this. Also, as congestion increases, which it will unless something is done, this issue will get worse. As much as I truly hate to add this because I don’t want to give any ideas. There are sections of Sibley that will not accommodate two vehicles and a Fire Truck. These sections are not limited to but do incorporate the Historic District. Please do not get any ideas this area (The Historic District) needs to be appreciated, protected and preserved.

We have spent so much time in meetings with city officials, traffic engineers and residents every week for months to try and come up with a solution. However, that does not mean that we may not of missed something else we should have considered. So again thank you for thinking about it and giving your suggestion. I really appreciate it.

[DalOwnerX3]

When I first started working at Intel back in 1988, I lived across the river and took Sibley street in. I made a conscious effort not to speed because I heard about people getting speeding tickets there.

I think the solution to stop Sibley street speeders is to have a cop or two pullover speeders during rush hour to send a message to the other commuters. Once people figure out that they'll get ticketed for speeding, they'll slow down.

Here's another idea - how about some folks put up flowers to create a pseudo-memorial on the street. This might make folks think that somebody got killed on the street and be a bit more cautious.

[forumreader]

I hope you're kidding about the flowers and phoney memorials. But it did make me laugh!

Reading through all this discussion, I think there is at least one unifying thread in our community. We would all like greater traffic law enforcement. I can think of many streets in our city that have speeding problems.

They talk about the 3 E's in dealing with speed issues - engineering, enforcement and education. Folsom is definitely lacking at least one of those. Maybe there should be a 4th E - effective leadership. I believe the City needs to be much more proactive in dealing with all our traffic woes. We would have safer streets, and neighbors wouldn't be arguing with neighbors over solutions.

I don't know if this Sibley idea will work, but why not give it a try.

[Terry]

Saw a Lexus SUV getting written up by a motorcycle officer this morning at 7:15 at Sibley and Glenn. Don't know if it was a speeder or a stop-sign runner, but oh so glad to see someone getting nabbed.

Hope that doesn't sound vicious, just so tired of all the traffic lawlessness that goes on in the area. Maybe the powers that be are trying to have a presence there now.

[forumreader]

No, it's not vicious. It is what is just. -- It is all about taking responsibility for your actions (poor & inconsiderate driving).

And probably what is just as important as that ticketed driver learning a lesson, is that numerous other drivers got a wake-up call as well.

[zach5]

If you are driving dangerously, I think you deserve a ticket at the minimum, There are a lot worse things that you can get/can happen

[Sibley Resident]

Well, everyone can feel safe that the cut through route in our neighborhood has been preserved for you. The Traffic Safety Committee voted 2 to 3 last night against us.

However you feel about the recommendation we came up with, you should know what we have gone through. For years we have been asking for help. The traffic safety committee has acknowledged on more than one occasion that we have a problem in our neighborhood. The city council has acknowledged that we have a problem in our neighborhood. The Mayor had made very supportive comments regarding our issue over the last year and directed the city to go into these meetings with us to come up with a solution. The Mayor instructed them to have a solution before him at City Council in December(because of the process we were not able to present it in December but were preparing to present it this month). So week after week for months we put our families on hold and went into these meetings (in good faith) with city officials and the cities own Traffic Engineer at the City's direction to come up with a solution. We took two solutions before the Traffic Safety Committee and were shot down on both. We then took the concerns that they had from that meeting and went back to the drawing board to come up with something else that addressed those concerns. Then a week before we are to present this to the Traffic Safety Committee (were the Mayor was previously Chair of the Traffic Safety Committee) the Mayor has made very negative comments regarding this proposal before we even had the opportunity to present it. From people on this site, he has even said that he will recommend to the City Council not to even take up the issue, Instead of saying that he new that they were in meetings and the city council has not yet received the proposal and that it would be inappropriate to make a decision regarding it or comment until we have had it presented to us, he has made the comments you have heard. Imagine how you would feel if you had done what the city told you to do. You had jumped through the hoops, disrupted your lives and your families believing that this is ok because were doing it to make things better and now after all of this, they are not even keeping an open mind or even want to give you the opportunity to present what you came up with. They said you have a problem, told you come up with a solution, you do, they don't except it and have no alternative solution to offer you.

[intelkid]

I understand you pain... you probably went through a lot of work to bring up some solutions. Unfortunately this mess is much much bigger than a few neighborhoods, it impacts the entire city. it must be frustrating to put a lot of effort in to it and feel like you were'nt even given a chance.

The simple answer is to get a new bridge or open the dam road. Then *all* these problems would go away. Unfortunately that is not an option until 2007, the earliest we may have a bridge.

I think the city was trying to avoid the eventual firestorm of controversy that would surround a major street closure. You may live on it, but it still is a major street to everyone else. I think closing it would do more harm than good.

[Lembi Resident]

Indeed it is most discouraging that the residents of this area were given a process to follow by the City, only to have the City then say that the process didn't work. In fact, this process was undertaken working WITH the City.

I must wonder whether or not the outcome of yesterday's Traffic Safety Committee meeting might have been different if the Mayor had not been so prematurely outspoken with his opinions on the Sibley neighborhood traffic proposal. At the closing of the last City Council meeting, in remarks made to the written press, in comments made to individual citizens (as reported in this thread), the Mayor made it clear that he was opposed to the 60-day trial closure of Sibley. He made these comments BEFORE the citizen's advisory committee had a fair chance to present the proposal to the Traffic Safety Committee. He made these comments BEFORE any such proposal was formally presented in public to the Folsom City Council.

Was the proposal heard at by objective ears at the Traffic Safety Mtg.? Or, were the Mayor's outspoken opinions being taken into consideration, perhaps even just subconsciously? Does this seem fair?! --- I say no. I am very disappointed and somewhat disillusioned.

As suggested by the Sibley Resident, this could happen to you or any other group of concerned Folsom citizen should you have a request of or grievance with the City.

[Lembi Resident]

I am concerned that there is a popular belief that a new bridge or the opening of the Folsom Dan Road will solve "all" of our City's traffic problems.

I am very pleased that we will have a new crossing. Thank you to all those who worked hard to expedite the project. However, by no means will a new bridge solve all our traffic woes. I can think of many problem spots in the city that are completely unrelated to diverted bridge traffic.

By the way, I began discussing the Lembi Drive traffic problems with the Folsom Traffic Engineer and the Folsom PD Traffic Sargent 2 and-a-half years ago. That is before the closure of the Dam Road.

[Stephen]

As just your average Folsom resident, I am also concerned that the Sibley closure issue might not have been fairly handled.

I wasn't at the Traffic Safety Meeting, but I agree with some previous posts regarding the Mayor's comments. It is quite possible that the Mayor's comments could have unintentionally influenced members of the Traffic Safety Committee.

[bordercolliefan]

I think there may be a chicken or egg issue here.

Everyone feels like the Mayor spoke out prematurely against closing Sibley.

However, my impression of events was that as soon as the possibility of closing Sibley was floated, the Mayor began receiving a large number of emails/phone calls from concerned citizens opposing the closure. (This is what he mentioned in his voice mail message to me -- it pretty much sounded like he had been inundated). It may have been the volume of opposition that caused the Mayor to offer assurances that the road would not be closed -- rather than that he pre-judged the issue without any reasonable basis.

I haven't had a ton of experience with our Mayor, being only a 2 year resident of Folsom, but in his phone message he sounded like a person who is deeply sympathetic to the traffic woes of residents in the town and is working very hard to do the right thing, to balance the needs of all Folsom residents. He didn't sound like a knee-jerk kind of person.

[bordercolliefan]

By the way, what are the "Lembi Drive traffic problems" referenced above?

I thought we were just talking about Sibley Street here.

[Lembi Resident]

So that some of our concerns might be better understood, perhaps a timetable would be helpful.

1. In response to numerous traffic complaints over past few years, and in direct repsonse to a Sept. 03 petition, the City organizes a neighborhood traffic workshop. It was held first week of Oct., in City Hall lobby. Lobby was filled with citizens from the Sibley, Lembi, Bidwell, Orangegrove, Persifer, Wool area. (I'm sure I've accidently omitted a few streets).

2. At the Oct. mtg., at which were present City elected officials, it was decided that a Citizen's Advisory Committee would be formed to work with the City Engineers/Public Works Dept. to come up with possible solutions to traffic problems. This process with the citizen's committee seemingly had the blessings of the City Council.

3. Oct. - Dec. '03 - Committee meets every week/every two weeks with City employees to formulate possible solutions. During this time the citizen's committee also received some initial feedback from the Traffic Safety Committee.

4. January 5, 2004 - An evening meeting of the Traffic Safety Committee is called. Over 1,000 mailers were sent to residents in the affected area, giving them the opportunity to review and comment on the proposed plan. (BTW only approx. a dozen citizens voiced an opposition to the plan.)

5. Jan. 22 - Proposed plan presented to Traffic Safety Committee for vote on recommending plan to City Council. Results 3-2 against the plan.


It was during the Jan. 5 - Jan. 22 period, that the potentially damaging/influential comments were made by the Mayor.

Regarding Lembi Dr. - Like a number of other streets in Folsom, we have a horrible speeding problem on a residential street. (I think someone mentioned similar concerns about some streets in Natoma Station. So I think you know what I am talking about.) -- Lembi is also the main route to the Middle School for this neighborhood. -- Lembi is a wide street, and has had a speeding problem long before the closure of FDR.

Lembi connects Riley and Sibley. During peak hours, much of the traffic sitting on Sibley, got there by going down Lembi and making a right hand turn. This is cut-though traffic trying to get to Natoma Crossing and avoiding the Rainbow Bridge. To a lesser-degree, Lembi also receives cut-through traffic from Sibley, destined toward Riley.

Sadly, the result of more cut-through traffic is more speeding traffic.

[bordercolliefan]

Thanks for the info on the Lembi issue. That does clarify a few things for me. In particular, I always wondered how the dam closure allegedly caused more traffic on Sibley (since Sibley doesn't really go the same place the dam road went). But I see your point about traffic on Riley trying to avoid the Rainbow Bridge back-up, and coming down Lembi to Sibley instead.

Was a survey ever done to figure out how much of the traffic on Sibley was bound for the bridge -- as opposed to being local traffic just heading into the historic district?