The city of San Diego has finally flipped the switch on the new traffic signal at the Mercado Drive and Del Mar Heights Road intersection. On the morning of April 29, San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava had the honor of turning on the light alongside city transportation and engineering staff.
Once the traffic signal went live, a line of cars waited patiently at the first-ever red lights before taking off when it turned green, some drivers waving to the crowd assembled in the street as they ed. LaCava and others also tried out the intersection’s new crosswalks which were painted onto the street at 9 p.m. the night before.
The crossing features both a 25-second countdown and audible pedestrian signals for people to safely get across the street at the four-way intersection.
Construction of the new traffic signal had been complete since October, but the city was delayed about six months in powering it up due to additional work required by SDG&E.
The $1.5 million infrastructure project has been over a decade in the making, as local residents, the Del Mar Union School District and the Torrey Pines Planning Board debated back and forth for years over the best solution to calm traffic along the busy corridor. The planning board twice voted against a proposed traffic light at the location before finally approving it in 2019 and forwarding their best solution to the city to take action.
”Del Mar Heights is really a fabulous community but it’s a neighborhood that’s split in half by the four-lane Del Mar Heights Road,” said LaCava. “A lot of traffic, a lot of speeding traffic, really divides this neighborhood in half and that’s not the kind of neighborhoods we want in this city.”
In the residential area with two elementary schools, the new traffic signal aims to knit the two halves together, giving Del Mar students a safe route to school and allowing residents to more easily get across the road.
“The installation of traffic signals here in this intersection marks another important step forward in our commitment to making the city of San Diego’s street network safer for all road s,” said Bethany Bezak, city director of transportation. “It also marks a significant step in our commitment to Vision Zero, and that’s our initiative to eliminate traffic-related fatalities and severe injuries.”
In his remarks on the sidewalk at one corner of the intersection, LaCava said the new light is something that the city and community can be proud of as it is the result of the persistence and patience of the school district and residents, and collaboration with the city.
“It takes a lot of work to integrate a new traffic signal into the community but we are confident that this improvement will really help the residents to feel safe,” said Rania Armen, the city’s director of engineering and capital projects.
