Mission/Big Oak intersection dangerous

Juliana Tipton, who lives on Big Oak Drive, is a lady with a cause. She turned 83 years old on May 12, but that milestone didn’t diminish her fight for a turn lane at South Mission and Big Oak Ranch Roads. She’s been at this since 1997.

It’s no question the intersection is dangerous. Nineteen of her neighbors on that street have been hit trying to enter or exit their quiet county lane off busy South Mission.

Tipton herself was a victim on February 9, 1989; a hit and run “that took the whole side of my car off;” a car that she had purchased only two days before.

Tipton and her husband settled on Big Oak Ranch Road in 1977, when vehicles traveled South Mission in moderate numbers. But from 1986 on, it appears that an increase in traffic, coupled with a 50 mph speed limit (that people have a tendency to exceed), began to make the perilous turn from South Mission onto Big Oak Ranch Road a daunting task.

“Sometimes I’m waiting to make the turn and there’s a huge tractor trailer truck barreling down on me,” Tipton said. Her voice softens as she adds, “I always hope the driver sees me.”

Tipton easily ticks off the names of neighbors who’ve been involved in car accidents at that corner. One man lost his ability to work as a result of an accident there, and subsequently lost his business, too.

She relates a plan the neighbors devised to “take down the hill” that obscures the northbound entrance to Big Oak Ranch Road: “We were going to remove the dirt with shovels so people could see the entrance, but found out we would be arrested if we did, so we stopped.” Later she asked the County Department of Public Works to install a blinking light. They wouldn’t do it.

Determined to get it, she asked the price and said she’d buy it herself. Instead, a traffic “T” sign, indicating a turn, was placed nearby “the next day,” she says.

Mike Robinson, acting director of transportation for the San Diego County Department of Public Works is familiar with Tipton’s plight and the slope that obscures the northbound entrance. He’d like to see it moved, too.

Robinson says, “Any slope on private property could be moved back if they [Tipton’s neighbors] have permission [from the owner].” When asked about the residents being threatened with arrest, he says “it was not my people.”

Other streets spilling onto Mission have turning lanes or pockets, while some others do not. It seems a function of road width. Robinson confirms that.

Roads with higher speeds, where drivers travel farther in shorter periods of time, must have lanes suitable for correcting quickly, such as veering into a bike lane to allow for another vehicle to slow or turn left. Higher speed roads also have larger radius curves.

There was a turn lane at Big Oak Ranch Road for two days. An error, it appears, created by the paving crew repairing the road. Adding a turn lane isn’t that simple, says Harry Christiansen, chair of the Fallbrook Community Planning Group Traffic Circulation committee.

Christiansen says there must be adequate space on either side for safe traffic in either direction. Even adding a turn pocket, such as the one recently constructed at Via Monserate and South Mission required reengineering the road because, while the pocket can provide safe turning in one direction, without another in the opposite direction, head-on collisions can occur. It took four years to plan, reengineer, and construct the Via Monserate location.

Tipton faults the Fallbrook Community Planning Group (FCPG) for their insistence that the community be kept rural. Because of this, she claims, they won’t insist on a turning lane at Big Oak Drive.

“Not true,” says Jim Russell, chairman of the FCPG. “The plan to make South Mission four lanes is the next phase in the county’s capital improvement program.” Four lanes would require widening South Mission and provide for turning lanes and turn pockets as needed. Russell says money has already been allocated for engineering and

right of way acquisition. He warns however, securing right of way is a long process.

Christiansen says East Mission is a higher priority because its traffic has increased more than on South Mission. Money to make required changes come from two or three budgets, he adds, and those funds are uncertain.

Addressing the notion that lowering the speed limit on South Mission from the current 50 mph might reduce traffic accidents, Christiansen says the process to set or change speed limits is a long and involved process.

“Speed limits are set by drivers,” he says. Every four to five years speed limits are certified based on radar enforcement. The results are studied then calculated. Finally, the speed limit used is the 85th percentile. Without this process, he says, “It’s illegal to set a road speed.”

Tipton says she was told by the county that adding a turn lane meant moving a power box, and it would be “too expensive” to do that. She wonders if the cost of a human life is less than the expense of moving the box.

Robinson responds, “A human life is much more important than moving a power box.” He questions the allegation, saying the county would never have said that because it would have “set them up for liability.”