City Of Davis Looking At Ways To Ease Congestion After Road Project Snarls Traffic
DAVIS (CBS13) — The City of Davis is rethinking parts of a road construction project along the Mace Boulevard corridor.
It's just one of several issues clogging the commute along I-80 between Davis and Sacramento. For Friday rush hour, everything comes to a screeching halt along on-ramps because of the several so-called choke points in this area.
"It's awful," said one woman as she pulled out into traffic.
Davis drivers are downright sick and tired of the backups along Mace Boulevard.
"It gets really clogged up around 4 p.m.," said another driver.
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Three months ago a $3.3 million improvement project wrapped up. It was designed to repave surfaces and improve bicycle and pedestrian safety by adding a separate lane just for them. But it also reduced the road from two lanes down to one, clogging the commute and driving motorists into surrounding residential communities.
"I am sure the neighbors are loving having us go through their neighborhoods," said Natalie Detterling.
The city of Davis says it hears the frustrations and installed a traffic safety officer. They will also be putting together some traffic models in upcoming weeks, according to Ashley Feeney the Assistant City Manager.
"Starting next week we will be making some modifications which include some partial demolition of some median bulbs to improve turning radius in that area," Feeney said.
City leaders are also taking a closer look at navigational phone apps, which are rerouting drivers around congestion and into communities.
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"We were using Waze, that app on our iPhone, because it led us all the way through Davis. We actually went through Davis' campus and got here 10 minutes faster," said Max Henry.
Faster for drivers but far worse for rural areas along the interstate.
"Rerouting interstate traffic through city and county roads creates a lot of problems for roads that aren't designed to handle those volumes," said Feeney.
City leaders will be holding more public meetings regarding this issue for community input. They are also going to meet with Caltrans and Waze representatives to see what can be done to avoid rerouting traffic. But the app just presents facts from an algorithm-the path of least resistance, so there is no legal action that could be taken.
