Red Phone: Red Phone has received numerous calls about the intersection along Camino Arroyo and State Route 152 heading east out of Gilroy. One of the main concerns has been the left-turn lane when turning from Camino Arroyo heading back into town. People have said that it is difficult to see which turn lane to turn into. Red Phone forwarded these requests to Bernard Walik, the public information officer for Caltrans, which is responsible for maintaining the intersection. As a result, crews added raised markers, striping and pavement marking this week, he said. So while the Botts’ dots may be more visible in the intersection, it is still important to be aware of other drivers around you.
What about the north portion?
“Since you recently addressed another caller who had concerns about the three turn lanes at the intersection of Camino Arroyo, I thought you might also suggest that while making striping improvements to the aforementioned concern that they also consider making other changes to the north side of the intersection. There are currently two left hand turn lanes at the intersection that merge onto the eastbound side of Highway 152 and only one lane for traffic proceeding through the intersection wishing to remain on Camino Arroyo. I would suggest that one of the left hand turn lanes be converted to allow two full lanes of traffic to proceed across 10th Street because there is typically a backup, and one can seldom make it through the intersection without waiting for at least two full rounds of lights.”
Red Phone: Dear Smoothing It Out, Red Phone forwarded along your concern to Walik, who said there wouldn’t be any changes to the configuration at this time.
“Changing the lane configuration would probably require a change to the signal phasing,” he said. “The request would have to go through our signal ops group. They would require updated traffic volumes from us in order to make a determination. There is no budget for this work at this time.”
However, he said the concern was reported to headquarters and has a good chance of eventually being addressed.
