TAC recommends signal at Old Highway 395 and Rainbow Glen Road

Joe Naiman

Village News Correspondent

San Diego County’s Traffic Advisory Committee recommended that a traffic signal be installed at the intersection of Old Highway 395 and Rainbow Glen Road in Fallbrook.

The unanimous TAC recommendation Oct. 25 sends the proposed signal to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, who must approve the placement of the intersection on the county’s Traffic Signal Priority List. The county’s Department of Public Works has targeted a Nov. 20 board of supervisors’ hearing date for the signal, and DPW also plans to recommend funding so that the signal can be installed after the design work is completed.

“If all else goes well sometime in 2020 there will be a traffic light,” Murali Pasumarthi, DPW traffic engineering manager, said.

The intersection fell one collision short of the collision warrant for a traffic signal which requires five collisions correctable by a signal within a one-year period, but just those four collisions between June 1, 2017, and May 31, 2018, created an accident rate more than four times the statewide average for similar intersections. Two of those collisions involved injury and after a July 23, 2019, collision resulted in one fatality along with three injuries DPW reviewed the intersection to determine if a signal would increase the safety of motorists and pedestrians.

“The signal will hopefully take care of controlling the traffic,” county traffic engineer Zoubir Ouadah. “People on the side street probably won’t have to wait more than a minute and a half.”

The intersection meets both the four-hour vehicular volume warrant and the peak hour volume warrant. DPW used a July 17, 2018, traffic survey which produced an average daily volume of 5,881 northbound vehicles on Old Highway 395 south of Rainbow Glen Road, 2,311 southbound motorists on Old Highway 395 north of Rainbow Glen Road, 1,386 eastbound vehicles on Rainbow Glen Road west of Old Highway 395, and 1,101 westbound vehicles on Rainbow Glen Road east of Old Highway 395.

An August 2010 traffic survey resulted in an average daily volume of 3,537 northbound, 1,492 southbound, 1,186 eastbound and 2,012 westbound vehicles. The November 2006 traffic survey indicated an average daily volume of 3,320 northbound, 2,231 southbound, 673 eastbound and 1,092 westbound motorists.

Rainbow residents and DPW staff members both cite increasing commuter traffic to Riverside County rather than Rainbow residents as the cause for the increased traffic volume, and Ouadah said that the use of Old Highway 395 rather than Interstate 15 is even more prevalent when an accident causes delays on I-15.

Between 5-6 p.m., the intersection had 1,256 northbound, 111 southbound, 91 eastbound and 57 westbound vehicles. The volume between 4-5 p.m. was 1,175 northbound, 123 southbound, 131 eastbound and 55 westbound vehicles. The intersection had 766 northbound, 113 southbound, 109 eastbound and 81 westbound vehicles between 3-4 p.m. Between 6-7 a.m., 124 northbound, 422 southbound, 151 eastbound and 89 westbound vehicles entered the intersection.

“The signal warrant has been met for this intersection,” TAC secretary Kenton Jones said.

At least 100 southbound vehicles entered the intersection during every 15-minute period between 5:45 a.m. and 6:45 a.m. Northbound traffic exceeded 100 vehicles for every 15-minute period between 2:45 p.m. and 7 p.m.

“It is a major intersection,” Ouadah said.

The mobility element of the county’s general plan classifies Old Highway 395 as a community collector and Rainbow Glen Road as a light collector. Both roads have 24 feet of travel width and a solid double yellow centerline which prohibits passing. Old Highway 395 has a 55 mph speed limit while Rainbow Glen Road has a 45 mph speed limit with stop signs at Old Highway 395 in both directions.

The Oak Crest Estates mobile home park is on Oak Crest Road, which is off Rainbow Glen Road, and other streets are also off Rainbow Glen Road, but no street west of Old Highway 395 other than Rainbow Glen Road provides access to the former United States highway in that area.

“It’s the only access either way, east or west,” Oak Crest Estates resident Mark Reid said. “You’re basically locked in there.”

Reid said that motorists on Rainbow Glen Road face the sun when they travel eastbound in the morning and westbound in the afternoon.

“You cannot see north or south,” he said.

A school bus picks up or drops off 10-12 children each school day including disabled students.

“They too are at the mercy of that sunlight,” Reid said.

Visibility is also impaired by a rise in the road approximately 800 feet from the intersection.

“That rise in the road gives you only 800 feet roughly of vision to the south,” Reid said. “The things that the warrants don’t show are things frankly that are as much danger as the numbers.”

Reid said that many Rainbow Glen Road motorists enter the intersection with less than ideal traffic gaps.

“They don’t want to wait forever so they take a shot,” he said. “That happens all the time.”

The fatal traffic collision took place at 4:42 p.m. July 23. A driver trying to enter Old Highway 395 from Rainbow Glen Road was broadsided by a vehicle driving on Old Highway 395.

That collision was caused by a right of way violation, as were four collisions during the one-year period. Two of those were during peak morning hours, including one which resulted in one injury, and the other two were during peak evening hours including one which resulted in three injuries.

Those four collisions alone created a rate of 1.03 collisions per 1 million vehicles entering the intersection. The statewide average for four-way rural intersections with a stop control on one road is 0.22.

Ouadah said that not all collisions were included.

“It’s only the collisions that are correctable by a traffic signal,” he said. “The ones that showed in my report are the ones that are correctable.”

Scotty Macaulay has lived in Rainbow for 35 years. The 97-year-old Macaulay is originally from Scotland, and he spent eight years in the Royal Air Force.

“It’s worse being here now than it was for me flying over Germany during World War II,” he said of the danger of driving through the intersection.

“We really need that light there,” Oak Crest Estates resident Elden Hansen said.

“We do need to have safe egress from our community,” Rainbow resident Cindy Myers said. “The ever increasing accident rate really shows that we need the traffic signal.”

The 55 mph speed limit on Old Highway 395 isn't always enforced. Oak Crest Estates resident Herbert Pender III invited a friend who is a member of the Oceanside Police Department to bring his radar gun on one of his off-duty days. Pender told the TAC that the average speed on that day was 81 mph and the highest speed was 92 mph.

“Most of the people are very inconsiderate,” Pender said.

“In addition to the signal, we need to reduce the amount of speed,” Oak Crest Estates resident Vi Dupre said.

Pender said that a North County Fire Protection District ambulance had to wait 11 1/2 minutes at the intersection.

“Every year it all increases,” he said of the wait to enter the intersection.

Rainbow Glen Road resident Andrea Venegas has a sister who is a high school student. Venegas said that students east of Old Highway 395 who are picked up by the school bus must cross the road.

“It’s a hazard for everybody coming through Rainbow Glen Road,” she said.

Normally, if an intersection is placed on the Traffic Signal Priority List priority points rather than the length of time the signal has been on the list will determine the next intersection to be signalized once funding permits. Design readiness issues may allow a lower-ranked intersection to be signalized first as can grant funding for a specific intersection.

Pasumarthi told the TAC that the recommendation for a traffic signal at Old Highway 395 and Rainbow Glen Road will also include a recommended funding source. Pasumarthi said that the design for the signal will need to be completed before a construction contract is authorized and awarded.

“You’ve got to still be careful, but hopefully, it will improve the safety and the operation of this intersection,” Ouadah said.