then. I think Tony addressed a lot of comments that were made to the surveys, but I wanted to also address some comments that have been made in general since the earlier phases of the project. So one general one has always been why even do a two lane road? Why are we considering this? So I wanted to, I guess push back to the 60s. There was a Caltrans building four-lane highways and there was four-lane highways being built all throughout the country A few places push back one of them was Ojai, the citizens to preserve the old high was a group form in late 60s. And they got a lot of traction and they passed state legislation to stop the Portland highway plan from Carpinteria to Ojai from Ojai to Santa Paula.
And also down to Ventura, you can imagine this valley would be a different world if they had continued with that. So this four lane section was built right at that time during some developments and it was intended to connect to that in the future. So in some respects we're lucky, we have a huge 100 foot wide right of way out there but on the other side it's a remnant of something in the past that hasn't happened and I think most of us would not expect in the future.
It does benefit as well, provide space for a separated bike lane or other improvements. The two-lane road would significantly improve pedestrian safety if you're crossing a four-lane highway that is a risky venture. It's often five lanes right when you have a turn lane in the middle but with two or three lanes it's significantly safer. Still got to be careful This also counts traffic. I think Tony in the report had the statistics, the average speed didn't budge much at all from 37 to 35 but the percentage of cars traveling faster than 40 miles an hour dropped substantially significantly and it's not possible to pass cars and speed at the level they did you know you can see it in the demonstration shown The aesthetics might be under question because of our zebra deals and zebra planters, but with a permanent planter I think we've seen the renderings.
If we have a permanent plant or curb with vegetation and a tree it can be very attractive. I think we're all aware that treeline streets are much better feel. The shade is nice to walk in and ride a bike in and park your car under. A good example might be Shady Lane versus one of the more open streets we have around Ojai or you think Creek Road next. Another comment that often comes up it is impressed directly in surveys access to the hospital so as a reminder.
The from the Y to the hospital there's no need so that's not an issue there's just like any other streets like oh I haven't you read all me and used drive around any Issues that might happen like an accident or other work in the street. But from the hospital to El Roblar, that section does have a concrete median and that's what concerns arise. So yeah, the detour is bike lane. It's been specifically designed extra wide at 11 feet so that vehicles can drive down. And Tony showed the test we did with the two fire engines. They've got an older model of the, I think there's a little France. I grew up right next to where they build in France and unfortunately don't build them anymore but the extra wide engines They drove both down there and they gave us a full review of that.
And it went well, that detour. There's also detour using other side streets. I mean if my previous note there talks about a survey we've done here informally and I've been here for 10 years is we've never had a significant issue on Maricopa where the lanes were blacked About 13 years ago, there was a major water break in front of the hospital which caused an issue. But otherwise it hasn't been an issue and I hope it's not but if one of these highly unusual occurrences occur you can still besides using the bike lane you can use go up church or Cuyama as a way to get around as well as it shouldn't happen either side because coming from Hawaii we have that open median there's easy way to get around Another issue that comes up frequently is this emergency egress, about how would we get out of town in case of a fire like the Thomas Fire otherwise.
So most of us were here three years ago during the Thomas Fire and exit routes were to Ventura and Carpinteria. It'd be highly unusual to head for the mountains even if you had flooding or so and wouldn't head for the mountains. So that northerly route would be highly unusual And I think oftentimes you hear people compare paradise and paradise, I've studied it. They did do a lane reduction downtown. The lane reduction continues South and it has a four-lane roadway just South of the land reduction so it's not the same as ours. Ours is we stick with two lanes in all directions but they have four-laned highway just South of it which split into three separate roadways. And down on those roadways is where they had issues with trees burning and falling across and blocking the road, so it didn't have anything to do with the lane reduction downtown that's an unfair comparison.
So I want to highlight that this is a map that's informative just because it shows in yellow. That if you can see my cursor there's Ojai with a star downtown well it's two lanes in all directions yellow streets yellow roadways 33 north 150 to Santa Paula 33 to Ojai 150 Carpinteria With the mileage, you know tens of miles except down towards Ventura. There's one strip we're all aware in Oak View they're both similar at about 0.7 miles that's end-to-end.
We're actually not reducing the lane for maybe a tenth of an hour so maybe ours is 0.6 miles but this next so exiting Ojai Across Maricopa would be a highly unusual egress route and we did do a supplemental study that addressed this as well. And this slide also further discusses, this red dot here is the coffee connection which is very close to where Maricopa Hitzel Road are so when you put the directions from there to the intersection of 33 and 150 The distance you can see is shortest on Tico, but also La Luna and Rice. People know these are all alternative routes with more direct routes.
If somebody wanted to take 33, I think most people know it, you're heading to the east over the intersection and then down and around. So it's not necessarily a natural way to go for people who know it, so Miner's Oaks would tend to directly head south to exit Miner's Oaks. Ojai, this area would tend to move down to 150. So the use of that egress even to exit down toward Ventura and Carpinteria would be unlikely.
I wanted to just do a couple of highlights of the renderings. This is our rendering over by the meadows, you can see the school and the athletic field in this area. And you can see where we have the temporary Zebra DO planters they're a little unfortunate the appearance of them but this is what we would have as a concrete planter landscaping in it A tree planted just like we have planters, trees in the medians.
And these provide that shade for the bikes, cars, pedestrians and others. So it's a very attractive corridor. It tends to be calming and it tends to help with traffic in general. This is the existing situation. Admittedly quite a stark difference would be a plastic planner but that is the difference in lower cost project. So that's the intention is to show that we have a planter there, but in the future would be a permanent planter landscape can grow. You can even see on the other side of the road where we had committed not to put trees.
We committed to recommending that as a final council recommendation, not having trees because there was some concern by the sanitation district who has the main line over there in the main path that it possibly could tap the roots down. So there's the existing condition, right? The two lanes plus a shoulder. And I should highlight as well that if you drive here you'll see all these old signs that said no parking. They've never been heavily enforced they've never really been needed to park and i think we all know on July 4th there's a lot of people parking out there So here's another rendering up next to Charlie stop and across from the hospital.
And you can see what happens up here where we've got a two-way bike lane and we've got a striped off zone to actors above her so this one is really very open you can see in some emergency situation here, even though we have the restraint of the center median there's a lot of room to pull over and For emergency vehicles to get by it. And you can see the existing demonstration out there now that's trying to show what it's like a significant differences, these small armadillo delineators are they were allowed by Caltrans in the demonstration but in a permanent project they are I've never permitted these, so it would be a significant effort and they really are saying okay for the demo. They'd like to see how they work but they've never permitted and they're inclined to not allow them for permanent projects.
So that would take it back to this look without the umbrellas out there. And that was the existing condition before the demonstration with two full wings. And so getting into the modifications for the demonstration or permanent project. There's three primary recommendations for Council one is to continue the demo with minor modifications, two is to continue the demo with substantial modifications and three is to revise the design To the pre-demo four-lane configuration with separated bike lanes along the curb. An important note on that is only way you can provide bike lanes next to two lanes, is you cannot provide parking turn lanes or the school drop off zone there's simply not enough room out there so that approach was not recommended by staff in order to get the most traffic calming and bicycle and pedestrian benefits The expected benefits of this lane reduction and rework of the entire Maricopa as well as the rest of the project, crossing two lanes, as I mentioned earlier is safer than four.
And then the pedestrian is exposed to just a single lane or possibly a turn lane so it's significantly less exposure which is where the risk comes in. Additionally when people pass sometimes you see one car stop and the other car speeds by and sometimes you can't see him but first car blocks it The bikes obviously get that reallocated space and get a protected, separated bike lane.
The cars and vehicles when you're exiting in the driveway it's much easier to judge one lane in each direction than two lanes in each direction and a car speeding by. And I live on Creek Road and often when I leave Creek Road towards Ventura The great example of that, you look left and Arnaz Ranch is right there. And there's a single lane opens in two. And oftentimes there's a car slingshotting by. You'll see the one car and you think you're okay. And then other cars whipping by right to the side of it. It was kind of a good example of how that can be.
The counter traffic no passing lane at limit speed and confinement of that tends to count traffic as well. There is disadvantages, you're not able to pass so if there's someone going slow or if you're in a hurry and cannot pass. And there's a confined field to that narrow lane, so that is a common way of traffic to narrow lanes and so that bothers some drivers.
It is also the turning lane into street or driveway may slow the primary and that's actually a primary recommendation we have so with just one main. We there's a turn lane provided in certain locations like into school stuff on church, but other locations don't have that that can make people feel anxious if someone's riding behind them tightly and so, and then dwell time is a discussion for the term used for when you're waiting to enter the roadway.
If you, how many seconds you wait for the dwell time. So they're waiting for a gap in the traffic so you can have with heavy traffic on Ojai Avenue to see it keeping in mind Ojai Avenue traffics are double or triple what they are in Maricopa but I think we know when you leave you try to enter Ojai Avenue from south sometimes you can wait because there's not gaps in traffic. So that's being measured by these traffic technology, the numinant traffic technology at this point there's no indication of change I don't think there's heavy enough traffic coming in from the side streets that you would notice that.
And, I think an important point that might get missed here is the four lane road width is not going anywhere. The curb-to-curb width is gonna stay exactly how it is so if in the future there was development up in the Ojai Valley or at the Carty lot over there, their vacant lot became a big shopping area and there was a high demand for some reason This road's not going anywhere. The curb is there with the asphalt there for the vast majority of it, with very small pockets removed from landscaping pockets as well as the curb extensions but it's all there and it would not be a minor cost but you know reasonable cause to retrofit it back to the 4-lane so if that was decided in 5 10 20 years that the old four lane road we miss it can always go back to So immediate modifications was remove every other planter we've already done most of that.
That provide more room so people don't have backup parallel part, even before with a 40 foot gap they didn't The two way bike lane signage was not clear enough, so we added some warning the bikes to look for the cars at the exit and the cars look for the bikes. And where the two-way bike lane presently ends help clarify that. We have the brighter green paint you see out there, and you see the solid green start of the bike lane in certain locations where it might be confusing. A car might think it's a travel lane for the car with bright green there. And we're still adding that.
We've adjusted some delineators to help with the U-turns and the right turns, and we've added reflectors above some of the planters. This is a good example heading northbound, the right at Pirie. And this was a little confusing because just before it here there's a trolley turnout so that trolley turnout opens up and then we've got the right to Pirie so we're looking at modifying this to provide So we're looking at a turn lane here. So it's just below the standards for Caltrans, but turn lanes are often substandard. The primary lane is where you keep the higher widths. So we're looking at a turn lane there and we're looking at more turn lanes at Pirie and wherever else we can put them. For instance, at Vallerio, then Franklin Store, Vaughan and so on.
Removing the delineators in some areas to help with parking and see if we can shift and make the parking stalls wider. And, uh, we're also looking at removing all the parking between Church Road and Y. There's no demand in that area that ever has been so that would free up space for these turn lanes. And redoing the U-turn lanes. So here's a good example as you approach the vines. We can tighten this up.
PB, Harmon Zuckerman. PB, Harmon Zuckerman. We're working on all the signage markings most of that I've mentioned so these are further discussions about I know a lot of people feel that the car parked close to that main travel lane is risky to open the door. And obviously, that's happening throughout Ojai Avenue in the downtown area but there's more room when people see that to move towards the medium so we're trying to address that by widening parking spaces and making them longer.
It's not recommended to remove planters. The planters help delineate that that is not a travel lane And it creates a physical barrier between the travel lane and the bike lane, which is a significant safety improvement. And so you can kind of see the discussion here that these armadillos some cars when you pull in they're at least shaped in a fashion that it's it doesn't tend to damage the tire or your alignment but If you really push out, you can bump that. We're looking at moving those over but still providing enough room in this lane for the fire engine emergency usage for Detroit.
And you can see some of this temporary signage we're looking at making it more permanent with Caltrans modifying the permit now. So I think the permanent project is very similar Recommendations widening the parking lane, removing some of the U-turns that are prohibited now and making sure we allow them as much as possible. And moving the parking to a bike lane issues.
And again, not recommended to remove planters. Removing the trees from planners is also not recommended because of that shade, the aesthetic, the benefits that they provide. The northbound side like I mentioned from the hospital all the way to El Roblar there's a mainline sewer that runs in the main travel lane And that their concern, those roots might tap that sewer line. I know they've been lining all the sewer lines and that prohibits the roots from getting in there but we're trying to respect that and recommending to council that we don't put the trees in that northbound side.
There's some thought about adding traffic signals or hawks instead of this improvement. A hawk is a acronym We have one there, and it's activated with a button. And they're expensive and the hardest part is they require a warrant And you've got to have pretty heavy pedestrian usage or accident to justify something like that. So between expensive, the aesthetics and but that would be something it's possible with a four-lane configuration.
And I did want to say we're not trying to restrict in any way the alternatives council has if there's other ones so I think those are The summary of the recommendations and a reminder that the 4-lane road with 100 foot right of ways and the curvy curve is still there, not going anywhere. I did want to give a cost estimate summary. This is broken out in a table that shows Maricopa first growth and Ojai as subtotal for both. So for instance pedestrian improvements about approaching half a million for pedestrian improvements on Maricopa Oh I haven't used 1.5 5 million and so that includes crosswalk improvements sidewalk and bill which are substantial and that's the biggest part of the project. The bike improvements are stanchial but nowhere near pedestrian permits miscellaneous cost landscaping utilities all as well our totals 3.7 million.
I think council already heard what we were Just notified of grant funding, which was being awarded to us. And that is going to fill the funding gap from the previous 2.3 million we had for funding for construction. It'll make us whole up to this 3.7 million. So that's spectacular news and they're also providing some funding for any redesign effort that we have.
This is a detailed cost estimate, it's attached to the report. So this is similar to the last one but in more detail so you can look at Maricopa Highway street-to-street and see where the ped crossing improvements are versus striping versus sidewalk infill and right of way acquisition can be substantial as well not so much on Maricopa because we have most of it except in front of Ben Franklin But on Ojai Avenue, there's some substantial right of way that would be necessary to put the sidewalk on the side of the road.
So all that detail is there for anyone so inclined. And then schedule the demo. It's a six-month funding but it's relatively inexpensive to continue that project all the way until school is fully open and we get to test the project for full A couple months will school back in operation to see how things operate up front. It is important highlight that there are improvements proposed in the permanent project which will make the traffic flow or be absolutely assured will not be a problem for the school. Research shows it's highly likely to be a problem musters great human driver turning into church from the left-hand part of the facts about what we're making a provision to The traffic split by that, but the final project does propose widening that driveway cuts will be two entry lanes separate from the right from Miners Oaks and separate from the left.
And then the award of the project will come thereafter about a year after it ends and then construction is Not finalized but roughly a six-month period, 12 months if we wanted to open it up for reasons we can't think of right now. But it can help to allow more time for construction and get a better titer bill. So all right I am done sorry for that long winded presentation.
