New medians installed on busy West Sacramento streets create driver confusion
WEST SACRAMENTO — New medians installed to improve West Sacramento traffic flow are causing confusion for some drivers.
Drivers have been bumping into and getting stuck on raised medians installed within the past month along Jefferson Boulevard, Sacramento Avenue, Harbor Boulevard and Lake Washington Boulevard.
The city said that the medians were necessary to prevent accidents, but right now some think they are hurting more than helping.
"You don't know if you're coming up on a regular piece of road or a big hump of a cement block," said Kenyata Sirmans, who commutes on Jefferson Boulevard daily for work.
The medians have no warning signs or permanent reflective lights and have black tire marks, scraped concrete and chipped white paint.
"One morning, I came by and I did almost swerve into one because I wasn't familiar with that being right there," Sirmans said.
About two hours after I started asking the City of West Sacramento questions, our cameras caught crews putting up temporary orange reflective cones near the medians. The city said its long-term solution will be to add reflective pavement markers and better lighting.
The issue is that crews are at the mercy of rainy weather.
"I think, with change, it takes a little while for everyone to adapt to it," said Gilbert Torres, who works at Realty of America on Jefferson Boulevard. "All the time, we could hear ambulances. Once a week, I would say, and usually, there's an accident here or up at the intersection, so we're pretty happy that they have them."
Torres told me that the sirens he used to hear out in front have disappeared since the medians were installed.
There are similar newly installed medians surrounded by traffic cones on Sacramento Avenue.
A traffic survey identified these areas as high crash corridors within the city along with Harbor Boulevard and West Capitol Avenue.
The project will include signal improvements, pedestrian crosswalks and prevent left turns and u-turns at 15th Street and Jefferson Boulevard.
"Before it wasn't here, I would see a lot of accidents here," said Manish Bangar, who works at a liquor store on Jefferson.
Bangar said it is better to have some bumps on the median than bigger cars crashing into oncoming traffic.
Other drivers still feel like it is making it a more dangerous drive in the dark.
"I know they are trying to make the road safer, but that's just very dangerous for the median to be there and no caution about it," Sirmans said.
This is a $2.3 million federally funded project. The City of West Sacramento is also using some of its general fund for construction.
The city anticipates it will be months before all the work and permanent reflectors are installed.