Part of dangerous road to permanently close to cars
Narrow and curving Morrison Canyon Road to stay open for bicyclists and hikers
FREMONT >> A portion of Morrison Canyon Road, a narrow and steep rural route in the Fremont hills that commuters seized upon in recent years to bypass highway traffic, will be permanently closed to cars, the Fremont City Council decided unanimously this month.
The move comes more than two years after the council approved a temporary closure of the same stretch of road in the name of safety, as there are frequently conflicts for space on the road, with cars heading up and down the hill at the same time having difficulty getting around each other, and between cars and bicyclists and pedestrians using the road, as well.
Some hillside residents who live above the portion that will be closed opposed the decision over the years, as they use Morrison Canyon to more quickly get into the city center, and claim the closure slow emergency response times to their homes.
On the other hand, the decision was welcomed by bicyclists and hikers who said the change will make it much safer for those who use the road as a recreational path and a connection to Vargas Plateau Regional Park, especially on weekends.
“In my opinion, this is a no-brainer that we should go ahead with the closure,” Fremont Councilman Vinnie Bacon said at a Dec. 1 meeting.
City officials say the road is curvy, as narrow as nine feet in some spots, and is bounded by a steeply sloped hillside on one side, and a canyon on the other, and therefore isn’t good for regular traffic.
“The idea of a bicyclist going up there, and a car coming racing down, it’s simply incompatible,” Bacon said. “We need to decide on one or the other.”
Before the pandemic, the city said the road was seeing around 400 daily car trips during weekday afternoon commute times, with most of the cars headed uphill, or eastbound, as drivers tried to cut down their commute time by using the road as a shortcut to Interstate 680.
Hans Larsen, the city’s public works director, also said the road has seen increased use for hiking and bicycling, which was “stimulated” in recent years by the opening of Vargas Plateau, and on weekends, he said, it is common to have more people hiking and biking than driving on the road.
In June 2018, the council directed city staff to work up a closure plan, and in November 2018, the city began a temporary closure, which was originally planned to last a year. The city installed flexible plastic bollards and some signs that prohibit use of the road by cars, while allowing only emergency access by cars for public safety agencies and local hillside residents.
T he closu re beg ins around the road’s intersection with Ridge Terrace and ends roughly where Morrison Canyon intersects with Vargas Road, which is the other road hillside residents above the middle portion of the road can use to access their property.
Michael Colantuono, an attorney who said he is representing people living near the upper portion of Morrison Canyon Road, said those residents feel like the city isn’t fully considering how much of a “community asset” the road is to them, and claimed that in three recent examples the flexible barricades stopped public safety personnel or residents from using the road, forcing them to take another, longer route on Vargas.
“We see no balancing here, we see a clear set of losers and a clear set of winners, and we think we’re the losers. We’re losing access to town, and we’re losing access to public safety services,” Colantuono said.
“We want the city’s help to look for a win-win solution, not the win-lose solution that is before you tonight. Safety of those who use the roadway is of course important, but safety for people who live up the roadway is equally a claim that you should consider,” he said to the council.
He suggested the city should consider the alternative of letting the road be used as a one-way, downhill, or westbound road for cars during weekdays, since most of the commuter traffic the city is concerned about is eastbound.
However, the city’s envoironmental impact report on the closure determined westbound- only traffic on the road isn’t feasible because it conflicts with two major goals of the city’s, which is to “substantially reduce conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians/ bicyclists on Morrison Canyon Road” and to preserve bike and pedestrian access “the open space resources along upper Morrison Canyon Road.”
Councilman Rick Jones, a former Fremont police officer, said the road closure wouldn’t change much for emergency safety needs, as the road is so narrow that fire vehicles or ambulances already likely need to take Vargas Road to access the homes above Morrison Canyon Road.
City staff noted it would be difficult and expensive to upgrade the road into a good enough condition to be considered safe for both cars and pedestrians, even with only one lane of traffic.
Barbara Krishnan, a resident, said the road has become a “beautiful resource for our community for doing physical activity and to access the Vargas Plateau park,” and thanked city officials for the closure work.
“I understand that those people who live up in the Vargas Plateau area do have a division of community here that is a problem for them, but it is such a huge resource to so many more people within Fremont to use it in a safe manner,” Krishnan said.
“There are literally pedestrian and bicycle traffic jams on the weekends sometimes, so mixing vehicles in with that is just very, very unsafe,” she said.