Claremont residents pressure city to improve traffic safety

Residents in Claremont are putting pressure on the city to make the streets safer after the police department recorded the most traffic fatalities in the last 12 years. 

While there's a lot to love about the city of Claremont, Nona Tirre Mirana, a local resident, says she's afraid to cross the street, even when she's on a marked crosswalk.

"It's the city of trees and PhD. It's beautiful, the schools are great [and] the culture is awesome," said Tirre Miranda. "In span of two years, I've almost been hit five times."

That's why she started Claremont Safe Streets Coalition, a group of residents who want the city to make some changes on the roads.

"Traffic calling measures like speed humps, speed tables, chicanes, or high-rise crosswalks where it's more noticeable when there's a pedestrian," said Tirre Miranda about some of the changes she wants to make.

In 2020, there were five traffic fatalities — the most in more than a decade.

According to police statistics, the intersection at I-10 and Indian Hill Boulevard is the most dangerous in the city.

In 2020, police responded to 14 crashes at the intersection, mostly from red light violations or unsafe turning. A close second goes to Indian Hill Boulevard and Auto Center Drive, which is the next street over with eight crashes mostly due to speed.

The last time city engineers completed a traffic study on Indian Hill Boulevard was in 2012. It's due for an update. According to the city manager's office, right now, the city has three major corridor studies along Indian Hill Boulevard, as well as Mountain and Mills Avenue.

Many other streets are also being analyzed to update the city's traffic calming policy. Results should be out between May and December. For Tirre Miranda, those results can't come soon enough. 

"What happens if somebody who is killed somebody I know or my kids, or someone else's kid or neighbor? So that's why we're constantly making noise about this," she said.