Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

I would like to address the speeding problem on Louise Avenue from Union Road to Main Street. My parents have lived on Gold Street for 44 years and we have seen the growth of the traffic on Louise Avenue, as their backyard backs up to Louise. 

The speed limit of that stretch is 40 mph or 25 mph during school hours. We have a substantial amount of kids that cross Louise Avenue that attend Golden West School. If given a green light through Union Road by the cemetery, carrying through the bike trail and Elm Street lights, cars reach speeds of 60 plus, with nothing stopping them but the light at Main Street, if even that stops them. 

You have to run across Louise Avenue to cross. Although cars look far away, they are actually coming faster than you think. My son is not even allowed to walk with his grandfather on Louise, because it’s really dangerous, you can feel the strong wind as cars pass you by. Neighbors and people who live in the area, make jokes that on weekend nights, we can look over our fences or prop a chair on the sidewalk and get our own view of public drag racing. 

Throughout the night, you can hear cars screech their tires and motorcycles rev up speeding as they break from Crestwood Avenue onto Louise. We have seen cars spin out of control ending up hitting our backyard brick fences, car accidents, and many near misses. My father and I were on a green light heading off of Elm Street onto Louise, a big sized truck ran a red light, at a high speed, obviously too much to stop, and if it wasn’t for my dad and his peripheral vision, we would not be Manteca citizens today, nor fathers. I hope we don’t wait until a fatal accident happens, to finally make a change.

 I have seen neighboring towns with speed bumps on busy straight-a-ways. The planter islands are obviously for show. Let’s now do something for pedestrian safety. Speed bumps and more crosswalks are a good start Manteca.

Johnny Aguilar

Manteca