Community Meeting on Arlington Blvd. Traffic Safety

Following who was hit by a bicyclist as she crossed Arlington Boulevard next to Arlington Park, the City of El Cerrito has scheduled a community meeting for tomorrow night, July 10, to discuss traffic safety along that section of the busy road.

Residents in that area have long been concerned about traffic hazards on the curving, hilly boulevard often plagued by speeding vehicles. The June 6 at Arlington and Brewster Drive was the second fatal accident at the same intersection in recent years.

Tomorrow night's meeting – at 6:30 p.m. at the – is designed in part "to hear residents' concerns and ideas about traffic conditions along Arlington Blvd. between Buckingham Drive and Arbor Drive," according to a city notice about the event.

At the same time, the notice said, representatives of the police department and city engineering department "will be on hand to present background information and preliminary concepts utilizing various traffic management tools."

"The El Cerrito Public Works Department is considering modifications to Arlington Blvd. to create a safer traific environment for pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles in the vicinity of Arlington Park," the announcement said.

Following Jean Smith's death, resident Denise Sangster talked to some of her neighbors, including Smith's son-in-law, Bill Scott, "about holding a meeting with the city to talk about safety issues at the Arlington/Brewster curve," Sangster said. "Bill indicated his strong desire to see safety issues are address once and for all. Given this was the second fatality in this corner, I approached the City about a meeting."

Sangster said the meeting follows a similar meeting that neighborhood residents had with city personnel in 2004, when neighbors expressed their wishes for a number of safety improvements. But the City Council at that time, Sangster said, largely ignored the neighbors' input and decided chiefly to install a stop sign at Moeser Lane and Arlington.

Sangster, the moderator of the Arlington Neighbors email list, was injured, along with her dog, in 2003 when they were hit by a vehicle while in a crosswalk near the same intersection, Sangster said.

In , Bill Scott and his wife, Cindy Scott, who is Jean Smith's daughter, appealed for action on addressing the traffic danger at that spot on Arlington.