There was a time in Manteca if a council member mentioned the need for what are now known as speed lumps on a residential street, city staff responded, “we don’t do that.”

It got better seven or so years ago when the then council decided that was no longer acceptable, that city staff hopped on board.

But hopping on board meant putting citizens requesting the city address consistent issues with speeding in neighborhoods and other traffic issues by requiring residents to jump through bureaucratic hoops.

Those “hoops” required a tedious process that took some neighborhoods six to 18 months to get a high profile crosswalk — the ones with the series of bars painted on pavement with or without being between two main stripes running curb to curb — or a stop sign put in place.

Those days are now solidly in the rear review mirror to the point the city now requires stepped up pedestrian safety features to be built into new neighborhoods as they are built.

The latest high profile example is the new roundabout at South Main Street and Raymus Expressway.

It not only has high profile crosswalks with amber flash bars on signs pedestrians can activate, but is has a safety island in the middle of crossing the four lane arterial that pedestrians can stay at that offers a degree of protection should traffic on the far side of the street not yield.

The roundabouts also do double, triple, and quadruple duty in addressing other goals besides pedestrian safety.

*They enhance traffic safety by slowing traffic and reducing the potential for T-bone crashes in the intersection.

*They improve traffic flow by eliminating the need for stop signs and, in the case of higher traffic volumes, traffic signals costing north of $1 million along with ongoing maintenance needs.

*They drastically reduce stop and go traffic, a major source of air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley.

When it comes to pedestrian safety, Councilman Mike Morowit can rattle off a list of city initiatives — speed lumps, high profile crosswalks, the medians in North Main with wrought iron fencing to prevent a repeat of three deaths since 2011 of pedestrians crossing mid-block, crosswalk flashing devices, and what he described as the titanium standard: high intensity crosswalk signals known as HAWKs.

“The more HAWKs the better,” Morowit said of the pedestrian signals installed at North Main and Edison Street.

The next HAWK is going up on Moffat Boulevard at Garfield Avenue by Manteca High as part of the city’s Safe Routes to Schools initiative. The site work is done. The contractor is waiting on delivery of the poles.

River Islands has installed three such HAWK crossing so far in the 15,001 home planned community at locations Lathrop city planners have determined based on adopted circulation systems and locations of schools and parks will eventually become a critical need.

Manteca, as was the case with the enhanced roundabout pedestrian safety features at South Main and Raymus Expressway, is also requiring developers to make such improvements upfront instead of waiting for the need to be generated.

Such is the case in Manteca with speed lumps near new parks and high profile crosswalks.

Councilman Dave Brietenbucher, who represents District 2 that is experiencing the least amount of growth among the city’s four council districts, notes established areas of Manteca are not being ignored.

There have been pedestrian and bicyclist safety upgrades throughout older sections of the city including the pedestrian crossing island on Spreckels Avenue at its T-intersection with Norman Drive near Target that has traffic flowing into it at a fairly high speed from a curve to the south that presents sight line issues.

The city plans to relocate the current signs with the flashing amber bar now at Moffat and Garfield to the Spreckels location when the HAWK signal is installed.

Mayor Gary Singh has indicated he’d like to see the city pursue funding to help allow the installation of a HAWK signal at Spreckels and Norman.

Singh also was successful in leading city efforts to have ProLogis install traffic signals at Phoenix Drive Spreckels when they build a distribution center on vacant land between American Modular Systems and J&M Equipment.

The signals are expected to enhance both traffic and pedestrian safety in the area including at Norman Drive and Spreckels.

“We are looking at areas in (older sections of Manteca) on a case by case basis,” Breitenbucher said of pedestrian safety issues.

The council already has a standard directive in place that requires speed lumps to be installed near existing schools and parks when streets repaving projects are conducted.

As such, they will be put in place this summer near Cowell School and several parks when the city does neighborhood street paving maintenance projects.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com