The “muscle car maniacs” who frighten Lincoln Boulevard

resident Ron Pounding and his neighbors will soon have another obstacle between

them and a quick run through town — stop signs.

At its Tuesday meeting, the Tracy City Council approved

spending $4,700 of the Public Works Department budget to turn the intersection

of Lincoln Boulevard

and Richard Drive

into a three-way stop. 

The signs should slow speeders who often exceed the posted

30-mph speed limit and will provide drivers with enough time to stop safely,

according to a city staff report.

Councilman Steve Abercrombie, who has attended meetings with

Tracy residents

to address traffic safety issues, said the city hopes the signs will solve the chronic

problem of Lincoln Boulevard

speeders.

Pounding said he and others are grateful for the help.

“We’re very pleased with the council,” he said. “I think the

city’s taking it seriously.”

Tuesday’s council action was a follow-up to an August 2007

decision to install a three-way stop at Lincoln Boulevard and Beverly Place. City staff reported that

“the traffic patterns have changed in that area, and staff has received

positive feedback from the residents,” bolstering the case for the new stop

signs at Richard Drive.

Abercrombie affirmed that residents near Beverly Place noted improved conditions,

but those near the lower half of Lincoln

still reported speeding.

“We felt that putting a stop sign there at Richard would

help …,” he said.

Staff originally considered a plan for stop signs at 12th Street and Lincoln Boulevard,

but that was scrapped because of concerns that traffic could back up into the

busy intersection at 11th Street

during rush hour.

Pounding, who has lived on Lincoln for almost 20 years, has led the

charge to slow speeders there and elsewhere in the city. He has attended city

meetings, written letters to the editor and even documented speed-related

accidents near his house.

He says that along a three-block stretch of Lincoln Boulevard —

from 12th Street

to Bondy Lane

— there have been 16 crashes in the past three years, including several

involving illegal street racers.

He said they’ve crashed into trees, light-poles, parked cars

and front-yard fences. And while he’s happy that the city took action, he said there

are many other Tracy

neighborhoods in need of help.

“We hope that the city continues to address the problem, and

we think it will,” he said.

Lucky for Pounding, the two new three-way stops on Lincoln Boulevard

are only part of a wider plan to combat reckless driving.

At its Feb. 19 meeting, the council gave the go-ahead for a

citywide study on traffic-calming strategies. That report has yet to come back before

the council.

Abercrombie said that the help of residents — and the

alternatives they have presented — make it that much easier for the city to

combat traffic safety problems.

“The thing

that I like is when the people come forward and say this is what’s going on in

our neighborhood and this is one idea that might assist us,” he said.