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MANTECA CLIMATE PLAN MAY GO AFTER IDLING CARS
But working city documents only addressing street traffic, not major sources such as fast food drive thrus
drive thru .lanes
Before Chick-fil-A made alterations, their fast food drive thru lane at their Northwoods Avenue and Yosemite Avenue location in Manteca would have a line of idling cars often reaching back to the Highway 99 off-ramp.

Idling vehicles are on the radar of the City of Manteca’s effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Manteca, as well as other jurisdictions throughout California, are under a state mandate to meet certain benchmarks in the coming years in a bid to reduce manmade causes of climate change.

The city’s proposed climate action plan being vetted by a citizens’ advisory committee includes the promotion of anti-idling/congestion management strategies.

Various air quality studies placed the amount of carbon generated nationwide in a  single day in the United States from idling as high as 40,000 tons. As such, idling daily burns as much as 3.8 million gallons of gasoline with a  retail cost in excess of $13 million.

The Siera Club cities a study that shows an idling car produces 20 times the amount of pollution than  a car travelling at 30 mph.

And while some of the strategies being vetted by the city may strike some as radical, they are not as severe as what San Luis Obispo and Santa Barabra have imposed.

They have banned drive thru lanes at fast food concerns as well as banks and other places in a bid to improve local air quality as well as to relieve traffic congestion.

Lincoln, in Placer County northeast of Sacramento, also banned drive thru lanes in November but only in their central district to eliminate congestion.

Manteca’s goal is to pursue anti-idling/congestion strategies for roadways by implementing strategies that reduce or remove impediments to the free flow of motor vehicles.

Strategies include:

*installation of roundabouts.

*removal of four-way stop signs.

*deploying diverging diamond intersections.

*permissive[1]protective left-turns.

*traffic signal synchronization would create a more efficient flow of traffic through areas with multiple signaled intersections,

*development  of grid like street systems in growth areas to increase the efficiency of new street systems.

As such, the City would require new development to include anti-idling/congestion management strategies on at least 50 percent of proposed intersections and roadways.

Similar measures would also be deployed  to retrofit existing streets.

 

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com