Special Council Meeting: Local Road Safety Plan and Rainbow Crosswalks, May 23, 2025
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Special Council Meeting: Local Road Safety Plan and Rainbow Crosswalks, May 23, 2025
The Monterey City Council held a special meeting on May 23, 2025, to receive a presentation on the draft Local Road Safety Plan and to consider a resolution authorizing rainbow crosswalks at three locations. The meeting included extensive public testimony and council deliberation. The road safety plan was received for future adoption, while the rainbow crosswalk resolution was continued to a later meeting after a 3-1 vote.
Public Comments & Testimony
Local Road Safety Plan:
- One in-person speaker raised concerns about congestion on the Highway 1 off-ramp near the hospital.
- Dr. Ri Chang, a bike commuter, urged stronger bicycle infrastructure, stating that “class three bikeways are not improvements” and advocated for protected bike lanes.
- Marianne expressed concerns about safety on Jefferson and Franklin streets.
Rainbow Crosswalks:
- Over 50 individuals spoke or submitted comments. Supporters emphasized the symbolic importance for LGBTQ visibility, citing a CDC report that 41% of LGBTQ youth have considered suicide and stating that the crosswalk could save lives. Monterey Peninsula Pride offered to contribute up to $3,000 towards installation.
- Opponents cited concerns about taxpayer funding, safety distractions, and the lack of a broader process for community input. Several speakers recommended private fundraising and more thorough engagement with affected businesses and neighbors. The process was criticized as rushed.
- District 5 County Supervisor Kate Daniels and MPUSD Superintendent PK Diffenbaugh spoke in favor, noting the positive impact on students and community morale.
Discussion Items
Local Road Safety Plan (LRSP):
- Staff presented the draft plan, funded by a $200,000 federal grant. The plan analyzed over 2,000 collisions (2018–2023), with six fatalities and 36 serious injuries. Emphasis areas included vulnerable road users, signal violations, intersection crashes, and speeding.
- Council discussed data sources, coordination with Caltrans, and the role of education and enforcement. The plan is intended to position the city for future safety funding.
- The presentation was informational; the plan will return for adoption in July 2025.
Rainbow Crosswalks:
- Three locations were proposed: Lighthouse & Reside (near site of past anti-LGBTQ violence), Alvarado & Pearl (starting point of Pride parade), and Pacific & Masson (near City Hall flag raising).
- Cost estimates ranged from $2,000 (paint, in-house) to $15,000 (thermoplastic, contracted). Maintenance would require periodic refresh every 3–5 years.
- Council members were divided. Councilmember Garcia strongly supported the crosswalks, calling them “a message of inclusion” and noting his experience with discrimination. Councilmember Rash raised questions about ADA compliance and the city’s crosswalk policy, urging more community input. Councilmember Smith opposed using streets for symbolic art, citing safety and the risk of opening the door to other group requests.
- The Council voted 3-1 to continue the item to the regular June 17 meeting to allow outreach to business districts and further policy discussion. The crosswalk design meets federal MUTCD guidelines by maintaining standard white lines and contrast for visibility.
Key Outcomes
- Local Road Safety Plan: Received; final adoption scheduled for July 2025.
- Rainbow Crosswalk Resolution: Continued to June 17, 2025 (regular council meeting) to facilitate additional public outreach and potential private funding. The motion passed 3-1.
- Closed Session Items: Tabled due to time constraints.
Meeting Transcript
Everybody. Happy Friday. Welcome to our special council meeting. It is May twenty third, twenty twenty-five. I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting to order, and I will pass it to Erica to do roll call and share with announcements with the public. Council Member Barber. Council Member Rash. And Councilmember Smith. And Mr. Mayor. Information on participating in this meeting and providing public comment, including remotely by Zoom or telephone, is available on this meeting's agenda, which is online at Monre.gov forbslash agendas. Remote commenters, you will be muted until it's your turn to speak, and a timer will be shown on the screen. If you're connected on Zoom, the timer is accurate with no delay. In-person attendees must keep phones and devices muted to prevent audio interference with the meeting. Thank you for participating in the democratic process in your city government. Thanks, Erica. All right. And with that, we will go to our public appearance items. Number one on the agenda is to receive a presentation on the draft local road safety plan. I just want to start off by thanking staff for all the work that you've done in getting this going. And I know that there's been a lot of uh efforts and community engagement as it relates to this. And obviously, this has to do with public safety. And so I was um proud to be able to attend and participate in those sessions. And hopefully we can hear some more public comment in this session today. So with that, I'll pass it to Hans for staff introduction. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Uh, the local road safety plan is is uh has the objective or the goal to look at our uh collisions that we have here in the city to analyze those collision trends and to identify potential counter measures, uh of course with the objective to improve road safety for all of uh all our users here in the city visitors residents alike. The um the work is funded through a grant and uh it has started uh quite a while ago, uh, but we felt it's important to present to you and the community uh the um draft status of this uh local road safety plan. And I think uh our engineering assistant uh Maurice Alcia will um appreciate uh to present to you and also I think she appreciates the crowd uh in the council chamber uh listening to this good work that we are doing. Well, good afternoon, mayor, council members. I'm here today to present whoa wind. Um the draft local road safety plan. Um, and next slide, please. So we'll start with what is a local road safety plan. So it's a comprehensive data-driven safety plan that coordinates the efforts of a wide range of organizations to reduce traffic accidents and fatalities. That's really the core of what this plan is. We look at emphasis areas and we try and strategically pace ourselves for future funding for safety roadway improvements. Next slide, please. So the project purpose and outcomes was that we is the mic understand the factors that contribute to collisions, develop strategies to reduce traffic injuries, develop an action plan to prioritize safety improvements and increase the city's competitiveness for safety funding. Next slide, please. So just a little bit of background. Um, as Hans said, we were able to fund this project through a SS4A or Safe Streets and Roads for All grant from the federal highway administration. Um so we were awarded 200,000 in the first round of competitive funding for an action planning grant. Um so now this summer we're gonna be working towards doing an implementation graph um due to all the effort from this first round. So we're really hoping to go after um that new grant program that will be available to us. Um we do want to add a little caveat to that to say that all of uh us who have been finishing our action planning grants are now going after to the same implementation funding. So it's gonna be a really competitive process. And with um the way that funding is for infrastructure right now, we it's a really hard to achieve the benefit cost ratios to make a very competitive project.
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