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ALL-WAY STOP NOW ON COTTAGE AT ALAMEDA
Latest step to reduce speeding, improve safety; citywide 2022 accident rate on pace to top 1,100
cottage stop signs
Manteca has installed an all-way stop at Cottage Avenue, Alameda Street and the entrance to the Cottage Villages senior retirement complex.

Manteca is on pace to tie the record setting 1,181 traffic accidents that occurred on city streets in 2021.

That said, stop signs just installed at Alameda Street and Cottage Avenue may reduce the chances of mishaps at that intersection from contributing to the carnage.

As of June 30, there have been 535 accidents in Manteca.

That is the exact same number at the same point in mid-year 2021.  Manteca ended 2021 with a record 1,181 accidents representing a 23.38 percent increase over 2020 when there were 958 accidents.

However, there have been three deaths form traffic mishaps in the first six months of this year. There were none for the same six-month period in 201.

Accidents that have resulted in injuries are also up. They were at 106 as of June 30 compared to 89 at midyear in 2021.

Citations for moving violations — speeding, rolling through stop signs and red lights, distracted driving following too close,  texting and such — that contribute to accidents are down so far this year.

There were 2,018 moving violation citations issued midyear in 2021. That compares to 1,545 this year as of June 30. That reflects a 30.87 percent reduction.

The stop signs installed earlier this week on Cottage Avenue at Alameda Street makes it an all-way stop intersection.

It has addressed four serious problems that have contributed to serious accidents in recent years.

*Southbound traffic coming over the Highway 99 overcrossing is no longer exceeding the speed limit going down the residential street as it has to stop at the intersection.

*Visibility issues with parked cars for those turning out of the Cottage Village apartments have been eliminated.

*Pedestrians can now cross relatively safely and not worry about misjudging the pace of vehicles cresting the overpass.

*It is breaking up the flow of traffic on Cottage to allow more opportunities for turns onto the street from side streets as well as driveways.

Traffic volume has increased significantly on Cottage.

It was originalyl a two-lane country road for the most part and never designed to serve as a collector street let along a de facto arterial to serve as a shortcut between the Target-Home Depot shopping area and nearby restaurants and  neighborhoods in the northern part of the city.

The city has placed flags on top of the two new stop signs.

In addition, a mobile electronic message trailer is along the southbound approach to the overpass warning about the new stop sign that is in place.

In the past two years. The city has made greater use of traffic calming options in a bid to reduce speeding on streets.

Working with neighborhood groups they have installed speed tables on Hacienda Avenue as well as Walnut Avenue, speed signs with radar displays advising drivers if they are exceeding the speed limit on Mission Ridge Drive, and stop signs at problematic intersections such as Atherton Drive and Pillsbury Road as well as Alameda and Cottage.

A number of the city’s traffic calming devices can’t be used on primary emergency response routes that include arterials and most collector streets.

Information about how traffic calming devices could possibly be added to streets in your neighborhood you view as a safety hazard may be found on the city’s website.

 

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com