Manteca municipal staff is advancing a plan to spend $1 million to redo the 100 block of North Main Street that’s smack dab in the middle of the heaviest traveled arterial in the city.
But instead of taking it from two lanes to four lanes, staff working in conjunction with consultants wants to spend $1 million just to add three full lanes so they can leave left turn lanes with separate movements instead of converting Main Street traffic movements to the same pattern for Spreckels Avenue at Moffat. That’s where all south bound movements — left, straight, and right — go at once and then stopped so the same can happen with northbound traffic. Such a pattern in the 100 block of Main Street at the Center Street and Yosemite Avenue intersections would allow two through 10-foot travel lanes in each direction as well as a pair of 5-foot bike lanes on each side of the street.
Traffic count numbers taken from background data DeNova Planning Group has compiled for the update of the city’s general plan shows Main Street needs to move traffic more efficiently.
The traffic surveys taken a year ago shows Main Street north of the 120 Bypass carries 26,600 vehicles a day making it the major north-south street as well as the city’s heaviest traveled arterial.
In downtown it crosses Yosemite Avenue — the city’s most used east-west arterial. Yosemite moves about 20,000 vehicles a day between Airport Way and the Highway 99 interchange.
At least two council members — Gary Singh and Richard Silverman — have gone on record following Wednesday’s community workshop on proposed designs for Main Street that they are disappointed to a large degree with the city staff not offering a four-lane alternative for the 100 block of North Main.
Both believe the proposals as submitted are short-sighted and will only marginally improve traffic flow. The two councilmen believe the city ultimately will need to make Main Street four lanes from Atherton Drive to Lathrop Road. That would involve eliminating parking between Center and Alameda streets at some point in the future.
The $1 million figure staff has tossed about for the 100 block of North Main includes tearing out the remaining landscaping bulb outs and reworking traffic lanes.
Based on traffic surveys, the other north-south arterials in Manteca and their daily traffic count are as follows:
uUnion Road, 20,000
uAirport Way, 17.300
uSpreckels Avenue, 15,300
uVan Ryn Avenue, 7,700
uAustin Road, 3,900
The traffic count for the remaining east-west arterials are as follows:
uLathrop Road, 19,300
uLouise Avenue, 17,300