Carolyn, you may also want to let Caltrans know about this as well. The traffic lights at Santa Fe Dr at the Rite Aid/Scripps Hospital driveway is under Encinitas responsibility, but the lights at Southbound I-5 at Santa Fe Dr are under Caltrans responsibility. This going to require the cooperation between 2 government agencies.

Hi Tom - thanks for your quick reply. Do you know the best way to report this to Caltrans?
By the way, I reported this same issue to Encinitas a year or so ago, and was told that while the City tries to sync the Rite Aid light to the Caltrans light, the Rite Aid light is on an old timer system that eventually gets out of sync. I'm hoping they can sync the 2 lights again. It did seem to work better for a while after I reported it the first time.
But long-term, I do wish Caltrans would make the Santa Fe lights that they own longer for the through traffic to keep it moving faster.

First of all just for the record, I'm just a private citizen. I don't work for any government agency, but I've reported probably about 1,000 issues to Caltrans in 14 months and usually get results fixed about 85% of the time. To get the ball rolling, submit a customer service request to https://csr.dot.ca.gov/

And select this category which for this issue would be under "Traffic Signal." Be sure to indicate the intersection in question. Chances are though, since it is an active construction zone, they'll probably hold off on trying to remedy this. But it's certainly worth a shot letting them know. Hope this helps!

Good evening Carolyn and Tom,

Thanks for your posts on the signals at this location. One of our traffic engineers will provide a response to your comments on Monday (City Hall is closed this Friday) and contact CALTRANS if needed to address the issue. Enjoy your weekend.

Traffic Engineering

Hi - The above comment from Encinitas Engineering said I would get a response on Monday. I haven't received one (or I don't know how to access it) and it has been a couple of weeks. Looking forward to hopefully a positive resolution on this.

Two other comments about this issue.
1. It happens mostly at the busy times 7-8:30 am and 3-5:30 pm. (so if you observe at it at other times, the issue may not occur)
2. While we are all stuck in a long single eastbound line at the Rite Aid red light, it's common for cars to get out of line from behind, drive along the right turn only lane to get through the Rite Aid light, and then cut back into the straight through lane, thus further ensuring that the patient people don't get through the first light. I think syncing the lights is a good first step, but anything you can do to help the situation is appreciated.

The traffic signals at the I-5 on and off-ramps are owned and operated by Caltrans. Caltrans has been made aware of the issue.

Thank you for making them aware. I appreciate that.
However, the City of Encinitas owns the Rite Aid light. Is the goal that the Rite Aid light properly sync with the light at the I-5 Onramp for good flow through on a connector road? And if so, is the Rite Aid light set correctly at this time?
(I worked on this issue with a traffic engineer a couple of years ago. At that time, I was told that the Rite Aid light was older technology, and from what I'm remembering, didn't link to the local office and the timer would occasionally get behind and need to be manually checked at the light). They went out, checked it, reset the timing, and all seemed to work better for a while. Is there any reason we can't do that again?

Hi - just checking in to see if anyone from Engineering is willing to check/adjust the timing on the Rite Aid light, which the city does control. Thx!

Checking in again. See my above 2 comments.

Hi Carolyn-

Thank you for your diligent follow up with us regarding this issue! We will be sending someone from our engineering team out to the location in question this week- during the times that you have indicated are the most critical- to observe this traffic signal to determine what further course of action we might need to pursue regarding this request.

Hi - I really appreciate it. Today, at about 8:20am, the car line on Eastbound Santa Fe was backed up from the Rite Aid light all the way to the roundabout at Santa Fe. I've attached a photo to show you...

And the annoying thing when the line in the left ("go straight") lane is that long - people then start cutting by going into the empty right lane, going almost to the freeway entrance, then cutting back into the left lane. This means that those of us waiting to cross the light at Rite Aid end up waiting through 2 or 3 green lights, but we can't move because the people cutting make it through the light in the right lane, then cut back in and fill the left lane.

Any update from Encinitas Engineering regarding this?

Yes. This is a big problem! Needs attention ASAP

Carolyn has done a great job at explaining this situation. It's a dangerous situation from every direction. Trying to turn right from the Rite Aid shopping center, there's not space without blocking the intersection. So you wait and then folks from the hospital side often come out anyway. What Carolyn says about those headed east on Santa Fe is absolutely true.

Hi - just following up. On 11/14/18, Encinitas Engineering said a traffic engineer would investigate. What were the results? Hoping to get this connector road moving traffic more effectively again. I have more photos if needed showing the situation.

We citizens are not asking to fix/alter the highway stoplights, but the ones in front of the hospital/Vons/Rite Aid.

Why is it 1) why has it been so hard to get a response (not just an acknowledgement), and 2) why is it so hard to get a PERMANENT fix to the stoplight issue. It isn’t going away, and the construction has only exacerbated the problem.

Thank you Haydesigner - I agree. I will also add that this problem is likely to get worse when the big new building in the Scripps hospital campus comes online.

City of Encinitas Traffic Dept, I'm excited to learn what you've come up with to get this connector road working well again.

City staff is currently working with CalTrans officials to evaluate and improve the functionality of the traffic lights along this corridor. Due to the amount of construction nearby and the need to coordinate our efforts with another agency (CalTrans) we must ask for your continued patience as we endeavor to improve traffic flow.

Why not just reset the timing (like mentioned previously) *while* waiting for the Caltrans coordination?

Because otherwise your response is basically "The problem has indeed gotten worse because of the construction. And since it is worse, we need to go very very slow on fixing this."

(Not trying to be a smarta** here, just pointing out the incongruity of it all.)

To provide you with an update, we want to let you know that CalTrans will be looking at the timing and setup of these intersections next week along with the city's signal contractor. Once this happens, city staff and CalTrans will then be coming up with a new coordinated plan for these traffic lights and intersections.

Looking forward to it, thank you for the update.

Thank you for the update. That is great news! I'll look forward to hearing what city staff and Caltrans come up with. Your work on this is appreciated.

Thank you for the update as well, looking forward to positive movement.

Hello all-

We have recently completed making some adjustments and changes to the timing of the signal at this intersection. We hope that these updates have improved the flow of traffic here as requested but please do notify us directly if the issue persists! The traffic engineering office here at the City can be reached via email at: traffic@encinitasca.gov.

Thanks for fixing this request!

Thank you so much. I'll look forward to trying it out, likely later today when I leave my neighborhood. (The true test will be when SDA is back in session as I think the additional school traffic adds to the 7:30-8am busy time). On a separate note, I have two teen boys who are often biking around town. Really appreciate all the improvements you have been making related to bicycle safety.

I tried it today and my husband did at a different time, but the issue is still there. Heading Eastbound on Santa Fe. The light at Rite Aid goes green and at the same time, the next light, at the Freeway underpass, goes red. The two lights are very close to each other, so that means a green light at the Rite Aid intersection but no one can go East on Santa Fe because of the red light ahead.

Since Santa Fe is a Primary Connector Road, shouldn't one of the highest goals be to move the traffic along Santa Fe by syncing those two lights?

Hello-
Thank you for your response. Please keep in mind that the Caltrans signal located west of the freeway is also coordinated with two other Caltrans signals east of the freeway, not only with the City's signal at Santa Fe/Rite Aid. The three Caltrans signals in this area are optimized to get vehicles on and off the freeway, which is dependent on the time of day. At times, you may receive a red light when you approach the Caltrans signal because of the traffic flow at the two Caltrans signals east of the freeway. Our signal timing consultant has taken multiple visits to this area and has not seen any non-utilization of the intersections during his time. Therefore, he did not warrant any major signal timing changes. Minor ones were made by our traffic signal contractor. We have not noticed any major traffic backups both during the morning peak time (including when school was in session) and the afternoon peak time. If you are able to provide us with a specific time of day when there is significant traffic back-up, we can definitely go out and conduct additional site visits. Thank you for your time with this issue.

Thank you for the update. I've been out of town but will take photos when I see the issue again, including the time it occurs.

It's interesting that the Caltrans signal we are discussing is optimized to get cars on the 5 freeway (rather than optimized for those of us continuing on Santa Fe), because the southbound 5 freeway entrance near RiteAid has one of the 1 car/green signals, which is the opposite of optimized for getting on the freeway. So they have one light optimized for getting on the freeway, and the next light optimized for slowing cars getting on the freeway. I don't understand the design concept here.

The problem I'm describing (cars heading east on Santa Fe) has become worse over the past year due to Plant Power opening, more use of the Community Park, and more buildings at Scripps Hospital. More and more people are driving on Santa Fe heading east, and there is only one lane that goes under the freeway. At certain times (like around 3pm when people get off work from the hospital AND parents are picking up kids at SDA) it's just too many cars between those two lights.

At any rate, I appreciate your working to help with the traffic flow at this area. I will try to take some photos to show the backup when I see it.

If by any chance, you are planning on having two lanes heading east once all the underpass walkway work is completed, I think that could help. I know that would be a long way out.

We appreciate the time and interest that everyone has shown regarding this concern and do want to assure you that the traffic engineering team here at the City of Encinitas is always working to improve the flow of traffic at high density intersections such as the ones on Santa Fe Dr near the hospital and I-5. We will therefore continue to evaluate this situation and make any possible improvements but please understand that this is a ongoing and complicated situation due to the Caltrans operated signals in the area and the current freeway underpass construction occurring on Santa Fe Dr. If any of you would like to discuss this matter further, please contact the Traffic Engineering office directly via email at: traffic@encinitasca.gov and we would be happy to assist you.