Neighborhood speeders a problem

Calls about speeding second only to those related to homeless

Ukiah City Manager Sage Sangiacomo reported this week that he has created a “multi-disciplinary” team to develop strategies for slowing down people who are driving too fast through most of the city’s neighborhoods.

In terms of complaints his office receives on a regular basis, Sangiacomo told the Ukiah City Council Wednesday that calls about “homeless-related issues” are the most frequent, but speeding ranks second.

“Just this week alone I think I’ve received six complaints from different neighborhoods related to speeding,” Sangiacomo said, adding that residents on West Gobbi Street recently sent emails complaining about speeding drivers, and attended the July 21 meeting to voice their concerns, but were not allowed inside.

“I apologize for the miscommunication, but our chambers are not open,” said Sangiacomo, who was inside the City Council chambers Wednesday with Council member Jim Brown as the city has begun hosting “hybrid meetings” that have most members attending virtually and one or two people inside the Civic Center. However, the public still cannot attend meetings in-person.

“We had a nice discussion in the lobby,” Sangiacomo continued, describing the majority of speeding complaints as “really coming in from neighborhoods, and the really sad part about that is when you really look at the issue, it’s neighbors speeding within their own neighborhood.”

Sangiacomo said the city has only three ways to address speeding: education, environmental measures (such as road narrowing and speed bumps), and enforcement, such as traffic tickets. And though speeding vehicles are “creating a lot of concern and creating a hazard, simply putting in environmental measures like speed cushions can have unintended consequences that actually make quality of life worse,” said Sangiacomo, explaining that the team of staff members he put

together this week will “look at strategies, and engage with the council and engage with all our neighborhoods to come up with solutions, (because it’s not happening just on Gobbi Street), it’s on Oak Street, Spring, Mill, Barnes, Live Oak, Main, Dora — the list goes on and on. And I do hope we can get to a point where if we are having problems with neighbors speeding or a barking dog, that we can have discussions neighbor-to-neighbor to address those issues and get to a better quality of life for all.

“However, we also need to look at the enforcement issue,” Sangiacomo continued. “We don’t want to write tickets, but if that’s the only thing that’s going to get through to people impacting the quality of life, we will begin issuing tickets.”

“I have a solution,” said Council member Brown. “Dirt roads, that will slow them down. Those cars won’t last one week.”

Sangiacomo responded to Brown’s suggestion by saying, “We will come forward with solutions, but it probably won’t be dirt roads.”

Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley said Friday she was “in the process of setting up a meeting with city staff and the residents who’ve sent the correspondence (regarding speeding vehicles.) Additionally, we have been considering their request for traffic mitigations and have been gathering traffic speed data through the Ukiah Police Department; that data will help inform our decision. We appreciate (the residents’ concerns), and honestly, we’re concerned about traffic throughout the city. There’s been a significant uptick in speeding and other reckless driving in the last year, so we’re working toward expanded enforcement in that area.”

When asked when the public will be invited back into the City Council chambers during meetings, Riley said: “We’ve been upgrading the audio-visual equipment in the Council Chambers (and) have been testing the equipment during the last two meetings. Provided it isn’t prohibited by the public health orders, we plan to go ‘live’ and allow the public back into the City Council chambers for the Aug. 18 meeting.”