stinson_beach_school_traffic_study
TRAFFIC: Drivers speeding north out of Stinson Beach along Highway 1 are a daily vexation for parents bringing toddlers and young children to school. A Caltrans traffic study that will soon launch could result in a flashing beacon, the department said this week. David Briggs

A forthcoming Caltrans study of traffic on Highway 1 at the elementary school campus in Stinson Beach could result in a flashing beacon on weekday mornings and afternoons, when students arrive and depart, according to a Caltrans spokesman. The light would remind speedy motorists that elementary students and preschoolers from a private program must often cross the busy road to get to class. “I think it’s a lot of tourists enjoying the scenery, but this isn’t just a park for their enjoyment. People live here and kids go to school here,” said Juliette Delventhal, the parent of a 4-year-old enrolled at the preschool on the campus. “It just takes one kid running into the street. The lagoon is right there, [a kid] wants to look at the birds or whatever. I can just see, aghh, them running out.” The Bolinas-Stinson Unified School District requested the study to ensure the safety of its youngest students; the campus houses kindergarten through second grade classrooms. Martin Honzik, the head of maintenance and transportation for the district, heard from a Caltrans staffer last week that a camera would be installed sometime in February. Once footage is collected, it could take three months for the agency to analyze it. If Caltrans decides a signal is warranted, it would install the warning within a year, said spokesman Steve Williams. “That’s quick—to do something within a year is pretty fast for Caltrans,” he added. He is hopeful that it will run on solar energy, to preclude the need for a power source and reduce the cost. It’s not news that drivers zip along Highway 1, but Mr. Honzik said the decision to ask for a study was spurred by a lack of respect for speed limit signs as well as recent highway “improvements.” A series of confusing speed limit signs compounded the problem. “There were new speed limit signs leading up to the school: a 35-mile-an-hour sign within a quarter mile [of the school], then a school zone ahead sign with a 25-mile-per-hour sign, but right before school there was another 35-mile sign. So I don’t think people knew what to do. The signage was terrible,” Mr. Honzik said. He said the 35-mile-per-hour sign by the school is gone now. (“My understanding is that a concerned parent might have removed it,” he said.) Peter Orner, a Bolinas parent who brought his concerns to the school principal, has a 4-year-old daughter at the preschool. “It’s like you kind of take your life in your hands crossing the road. It seems a little bit comical to me that they’re going to study it… I have almost been hit b