Cars failing to stay on the street while traveling through Manteca is also a concern of Gary and Vickie Martin.

The couple lives in the 900 block of East Alameda where three times in the past 29 years out-of-control drivers have ended up taking out brickwork around a lamppost in their front yard after losing control making a left-hand turn from southbound Powers onto eastbound Alameda. Speed and inattentive driving is obviously the problem. But it doesn’t help that the nearby intersection is configured in such a manner that a left turn is at more than a 90 degree angle.

The couple appeared before the council as they were a little bit dismayed at the staff’s conclusion that certain remedies would make it worse and other possible solutions would be fairly expensive and—  if considered — would have to be budgeted for in 2015 or 2016.

The city nixed things such as speed bumps as being more problematic on the collector street plus impairing the response time of emergency vehicles such as fire engines.

The Martins made several suggestions to the Manteca City Council on Tuesday they felt could be done quicker and for less money. They included solar-powered flashing signs warning of the odd curve at the T-intersection, milled pavement rumble strips (a series of small depressions in the asphalt) that would essentially get a driver’s attention via the rumbling noise and vibration or possibly replicating medians topped with rock as the city has used to slow traffic on South Powers Avenue.

The Martins have seen their insurance premiums jump $100 a year as two of the three drivers had no insurance requiring their insurance company to pay for repairs or for them to take money out of their own pocket.