On the Skids in Carbon Canyon #12347-49

As the debate via an appeal of a planning commission vote (a narrow 3-2) about the Madrona housing project, proposing 162 houses on 367 acres on the north side of Carbon Canyon between Olinda Village and the county line in Brea, continues, discussion on traffic has centered mainly, from the applicant's standpoint, on cold numbers from measurements of traffic volume at given intersections.

What the appellant's argued in last week's opening hearing before the city council, however, was also that dangerous driving behavior on the curvy state highway is a risk, given that the sole entrance to the project is in a particularly knotty area just east of the Manely Friends stable.  Even with turn, deceleration and acceleration lanes and so on, there are just too many times people drive at too great a speed and/or with too great a stimulants level.

Two more recent examples of errant navigation of Carbon Canyon Road have arisen.

The first is westbound just west of the historic La Vida Mineral Springs resort site and east of Olinda Village.  A vehicle clearly came too fast around a curve and clipped the hillside and some reflectors, leaving some visible debris behind.

The second and third were on the highway at the S-curve in Chino Hills, at its bottom portion between Old Carbon Canyon Road and Azurite Drive near Summit Ranch.  In these cases, it is likely both were eastbound because the road descends there, though it is possible one of them was from a westbound car climbing at high speed.  This latter involved the denting of the guardrail with minimal debris.  The former, however, was a greater impact collision, leaving some undercarriage from the car and bending the support post for the crumpled rail back towards the ground.  Importantly, the offending vehicle had to cross lanes to achieve this.  Photos are a bit hard to get in this area, given the lack of shoulder area for safe stopping.

But, as a consolation prize, here is a photo of a higher portion at the S-curve, at the middle curve, where several attempts to dislodge a concrete bollard have so far failed, but not for lack of trying.  A massive tree stump has been placed there in recent years, as well, the combo sited to protect a power pole.  These are eastbound drivers as well, racing downhill from the summit and plowing straight into the bollard, while the road heads off to the left.

With the Forestar Canyon Hills project of 76 houses now in preliminary construction and the threat of Madrona still looming, there will be more cars in Carbon Canyon and more opportunities for reckless driving to injure or kill innocent people.  If having more cars (and people) in the canyon isn't an incentive for officialdom to provide at least a modicum of protection through patrolling, casualties would be the only likelihood and waiting for such an incident to act is simply poor public policy.