The City of Lathrop continues to add safety measures to the area near Lathrop High.

The latest of that was the Lathrop City Council adopting a resolution that called for creating Spartan Way Traffic Enhancement, using CIP Funding that would be reimbursed by Measure C money.

“The proposed safety improvements will reduce vehicle speed and improve pedestrian safety,” said City Engineer Brad Taylor in his staff report at the Oct. 13 monthly session.

He noted that staff recently completed a traffic study on Spartan Way between Golden Valley Parkway and Stanford Crossing – the two landmarks in the area are the Lathrop Generations Center and LHS.

The traffic study identified safety concerns such as high vehicle speeds, mid-block pedestrian crossing, and high-speed motorized bicycles and scooters using the sidewalks with pedestrians present.

From those efforts came these improvement plans:

·         Raised crosswalk with pedestrian activated flashing lights – This would take place north of the skate park at Generations Center, serving as a speed hump to reduce vehicle speed, and improve pedestrian visibility and safety when crossing the street.

·         4-foot-high wrought iron median fence – The fencing would be installed on the Spartan Way median between Stanford Crossing Drive to Golden Valley Parkway in an effort to prevent pedestrian crossing.

·         Restriping – The road-striping here is to re-establish visibility of existing sidewalks, reduce vehicle lane width to 9 feet to slow down vehicle speed, and enhance the existing bikeway with high-visibility green.

·         Bike lane physical barrier – The roadway between Stanford Crossing Drive and Golden Valley Parkway would be converted from a Class II bike lane to a Class IV Protected Bikeway, separating bicyclists and vehicles with concrete dividers.