The Panther Newspaper: Orange neighbors fret over busy intersection near Chapman University

While living near the intersection of East Sycamore Avenue and North Shaffer Street, Jason Cunningham often heard screeching tires and the harsh crunch of metal.

“It’s just ridiculous that there isn’t (a four-way stop) because whether it’s students or neighbors walking through, it’s not a safe intersection,” Cunningham said.

Four years ago, Cunningham made a formal request at an Orange Traffic Commission meeting to install a four-way stop at the intersection. He was concerned that the current two-way stop was unsafe.

Two accidents have occurred at the intersection this year that resulted in injuries requiring hospitalization, according to the accident reports on file at Orange Police Department.

“Every day I hear at least 10 different people slam on their brakes and sound their horns ... because people are flying by,” Cunningham told the Traffic Commission. “I’ve seen people going east and westbound that can’t see the oncoming cars on Shaffer Street because people park so close to the curb and you can’t see around.”

This was a concern for Cunningham because students cross this intersection daily. Chapman University, Orange High School, Yorba Junior High School and Cambridge Elementary School are all within walking distance of the intersection.

“There’s a stop sign on every single intersection on Shaffer, from Chapman Avenue up to Katella Avenue, except for Sycamore,” Cunningham said in an interview. “I figured it was only logical that it would be easy to put in a new stop sign.”

But the traffic commission denied his request.

“They were saying it would be difficult to put it in, it costs a lot of money and it would mess up the flow of traffic,” Cunningham said.

City traffic engineer Amir Farahani, who was present for the meeting, said that it costs about $1,000-$2,000 to install stop signs and it can take up to two months for the project to be completed.

“With the placement of a four-way stop or a two-way stop, there are some criteria,” Farahani said. “We look at the accident history and … there has to be three or more correctable accidents in the past 12 months and at that time, there weren’t any.”

This was the fourth time in 15 years that this issue has come up, Commissioner Michael Lebeau said, according to the meeting minutes. Lebeau was the only no in a 4-1 vote to deny the stop sign request.

“It’s been an issue for a long time now, so it ought to be taken care of,” said Mark Strohback, who attended the meeting in support of Cunningham.

Cunningham had just moved in to a house on the corner of Sycamore Avenue and Shaffer Street, and Strohback said they immediately noticed an issue with the intersection.

“We would hang out on the balcony and just see cars all the time going by and almost get into wrecks,” Strohback said. “It was kind of too close for comfort when we saw some of those things.”

Strohback said he was disappointed with the Traffic Commission’s decision.

“They mentioned that there weren’t enough traffic incidents to support it,” Strohback said. “There had to be more than the statement actually showed … and it’s our assumption that people just aren’t reporting (accidents).”

Lebeau took this into account during their discussion of the issue.

“It’s hard to say how many (accidents) are being reported and how many aren’t,” Lebeau said, according to the meeting minutes. “Just because the reported accidents are so few, it doesn’t mean the traffic collisions aren’t happening.”

Resident Jill Flanders attended the meeting on another issue but was still inclined to speak up about this concern.

“I avoid Sycamore because … I’m deathly afraid to pull out from the intersection because I cannot see oncoming traffic,” Flanders said, according to the meeting minutes. “I agree that a lot of accidents don’t get reported because they’re accidents by students who don’t want to report them so their insurance rates won’t go up.”

Sgt. Jeff Bird of Orange Police Department Traffic Bureau said in the three years prior to the meeting, there had been two reported collisions in the intersection, according to the meeting minutes.

“I know I’ve heard three accidents and I’ve been living there for two months,” Cunningham said at the time of the meeting.

Farahani said without the accident reports, there’s nothing the traffic commission can do to help.

“If it’s not warranted, if it doesn’t meet the criteria, if there’s nothing to correct, you put in unwanted stop signs,” Farahani said. “If there is no problem (to begin with), then that could create a problem.”

Farahani said the number of rear-end accidents tend to increase when stop signs are installed because motorists aren’t used to stopping there.

“Stop signs have a different purpose than just slowing down the traffic,” Farahani said. “Stop signs are like traffic signals or devices which provide right of way for different directions of travel on the road.”

“Get support from the community,” Strohback said. “That would be a good option to show Orange that there’s more people that it affects and it’s a real issue and probably, at that point, something could get done about it.”

Photo courtesy Pixabay.