Leucadia/Encinitas will absorb Carlsbad’s Traffic

By JP(JP)

The bad news is the minimum estimate of 15000 cars cutting through Leucadia each day will further degrade Encinitas by putting even more gridlock along the HW101 corridor throughout Encinitas. Encinitas needs to manage the traffic …

The bad news is the minimum estimate of 15,000 cars cutting through Leucadia each day will further degrade Encinitas by putting even more gridlock along the HW101 corridor throughout Encinitas.

Encinitas needs to manage the traffic volume cutting through Encinitas and encourage them to stay on I5!

The development should be conditioned to:

1. Design the access improvements to encourage access from Avenida Encinas- NOT LEUCADIA HW101.

2. Redesigning the La Costa/HW101 intersection to:

a. Reduce the current southbound HW101 through lanes to one at La Costa Avenue for a small segment to manage the cut through traffic in Encinitas. Making this small change would help Encinitas tremendously by moving the morning cut through commuters queue north to Ponto (which is were it belongs) instead of grid locking all of Leucadia and Encinitas every time that I5 gets backed up. The Cut through traffic problem is only going to get worse in the future with I5 currently backed up 50% of the time with projections to get much worse in the near future.

b. Include two left hand turn lanes from southbound HW101 turning east on La Costa Avenue.

3. Improve La Costa Avenue to handle the increased future traffic-including:

a. Rebuilding the existing bridge over the railroad tracks.

b. Rebuilding the intersections of Vulcan Avenue and Sheridan Road to assure no increase in cut through traffic through the Leucadia neighborhood east of HW101.

c. Bike lanes and Walkways, and Landscaping improvements.

Our Encinitas’s Staff and City Council need to get their game on and make sure Encinitas manages its roads and protect our City from the negative impacts of Carlsbad’s development policies.

Time will tell whether staff and City Council are watching our back. What kind of conditions do you think our City Council will suggest being included in the Specific Plans conditions of approval?