Video: Road Work Creates Hazardous Ocean Beach Intersection

by Brenda McFarlane on December 3, 2011 · 14 comments

It’s been several weeks since road work on Cable Street in Ocean Beach was either completed or waiting for another phase.

However, on at least one intersection at Narragansett Ave. and Cable St., the road paint has yet to be replaced. This seems to have created a bit of a traffic hazard as hopefully the quick video grab I took yesterday morning shows.

{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }

OB Mercy December 3, 2011 at 10:01 pm

Wow, that’s what I call a California stop! Dangerous.

cahlo December 4, 2011 at 6:47 am

all those idiots that didn’t stop wouldn’t stop if there was some paint on the road…..the sign should be enough……get off the cell phones and just pay attention…..

Shane Finneran December 5, 2011 at 9:54 am

I disagree. Virtually all stop signs in San Diego are accompanied by the line on the road. So naturally, some just by force of habit, some drivers might miss the sign without the line. Especially at four-way stops, when drivers can see that lines ARE on the ground for the perpendicular traffic’s stop signs.

Thanks for the article and video! Hopefully this will encourage the city to fix this hazard soon.

Avery December 5, 2011 at 11:23 am

A few months ago, on my way back from dropping my daughter off at school, I blew through that intersection without even hesitating. Two seconds later, I felt as though something was different about my regular commute, realized what I’d done, and immediately broke out in a panicked cold sweat. I had to park and walk back to figure out how in the world I’d failed to register the four-way stop. And then I saw it: The missing line.

Scared me to death to realize that even as someone who drives attentively enough to maintain a perfect driving record, I could have killed someone simply because one of the visual cues I expected for the intersection had been removed. How could I have ignored the actual stop sign? It wasn’t obscured in any way, and I’ve driven that road twice per day for two years.

A few days later, I saw that someone had used a spray-can to paint rudimentary lines at each stop. I wondered whether they’d had the same frightening experience that I’d had.

Avery December 5, 2011 at 11:29 am: Ack. Just realized a mistake. My failure to stop was at the intersection of BACON and Narragansett, which went through a similar construction process a while back.

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Brenda McFarlane December 6, 2011 at 3:05 am

Yup, I agree. I get used to the line being there (and the big STOP painted on the road) so I begin (unconsciously) to rely on one being there to let me know-or remind me- that there’s a stop.

Annie December 4, 2011 at 12:12 pm

Brenda, great video. The next time you stand out there with a camera, you should be in a cop uniform. It would be fun if nothing else, and I’m sure you’d cause more than a few hearts to race.

I’m inclined to agree with cahlo. The fact that they slowed to a roll shows they know there’s a stop sign … they simply don’t care. But the road should still be painted.

John December 5, 2011 at 8:56 am

OB’s street repairs are a welcome mess… but I agree… they seem to done haphazardly.

I live on Ebers, and we’ve had pipes and asphalt in front of our section of driveways/garages for over a year. I’ve even received a flat tire from the bolts connecting the pipes. I filed a claim, and it was rejected.

We were never informed of the work to be done. There was never a schedule made public. They have not been onsite to work on the job for at least 10 months. Getting information on a possible completion date is a runaround game as I’ve made several calls.

I think it would be worthwhile for our community to look into the all of the OB street repairs.

john December 9, 2011 at 2:23 pm

While I agree the painted line does help people come to a complete stop this is really making a mountain out of an anthill. (moles are too big) All of these cars have surely traversed this intersection daily for months or years. Do they think the stop sign isn’t there anymore? And the bicycle- when does anyone on a bike ever come to a complete stop (besides ME when the car on the right is sleeping through my hand signals to take his right of way and I have to get out of my pedals before falling on my face!)
Avery: LOL! Panicked cold sweat? Don’t ever flip your mattress over, the tags might fall off it and give you a heart attack!
This does display a driving safety phenomenon maybe best described as “get-there-itis” which is why nobody in their right mind rides a bicycle on Midway drive and speed bumps are seen on some random surface streeets. All of these examples represent an area traversed by drivers headed to a much distant destination, everything along their route is just an obstacle to get through on their way there. If you could set up a camera on an intersection like this but one side of it was a cul-de-sac, you can bet every car would come to a dead stop because it would be their precious little babies endangered by inattentive drivers, not someone else’s “brats”.

Avery December 9, 2011 at 4:37 pm

You have a valid point and a welcome opinion, as does everyone else posting here.

I’ll try not to take the derisive humor aimed my way too seriously.

Brenda McFarlane December 10, 2011 at 6:42 am

John, sorry to get off the point for a moment but I think it would be interesting to find out why you mocked Avery for trying to express the state of anxiety one feels after realizing they’ve just run a stop sign and didn’t even notice? I too find it frightening when I do something like this; not only because I just endangered others and myself and risked a ticket but it frightens me when I realize I can make such a dangerous mistake. Did you feel it was poorly written, exaggerated, not true or do you think men don’t break out in panicked cold sweats? Whatever your reason, I have to say I especially liked Avery’s comments – more interesting than the judgmental bullshit most of us like to hear ourselves spout . I wish all of us could be more honest without fear of being mocked.

john December 10, 2011 at 11:13 am

I thought the statement about the cold panicked sweat was over the top and dramatic as well as the part about parking and walking back. C’mon now, it was a 4 way stop, not a stop sign keeping you from wandering out onto a rural highway to be broadsided by a semi travelling at 70 mph.
I’m not sure whether I was making fun of it because I doubted they made that big of a deal of it at the time or because they did and I consider that freaking out over nothing or maybe a bit of both, but the whole thing seemed bit overdramatic.
It’s funny you are defending Avery’s right to make comments without critical replies but are now demanding I make an explanation to justify my reply to them.

Avery December 10, 2011 at 7:24 pm

In general, I’m very level-headed, but because at the time I lived about a block from that intersection, the experience was particularly jarring. My children (precious babies?), their friends (brats?) and pets cross that intersection multiple times per day. I immediately flashed to the possibility that any one of the neighborhood kids could have been dashing across the street, trusting any driver to come to a stop at the sign, which I had not. And yes, unfortunately, it was one of those full-body hot-flash, weak-in-the-knees, shaky-hands sort of freak out I succumbed to.

I related my experience only because it seemed a particularly appropriate illustration of how the haphazard street construction affected one local resident and driver.

john December 10, 2011 at 8:16 pm: I don’t think we need to bicker over this further, my reference to you was only one line of my post and in fact was really just poking fun.
I will say I understand the point of how that moment could be reached, and reiterate if the situation had been (as I offered) pulling out onto a rural highway with various light and heavy vehicles travelling over a mile a minute I would have felt the same.
Needless to say a construction zone requires heightened awareness, more caution, and lower speeds from drivers. I was actually amazed at the ability of crews to dig it all up and get it back together in a reasonably intact way every day that Cable St. work has been going on, let’s share some of the burden with them and watch for this hazard.

The article is thus worthwhile.

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