Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Stop the screeching brakes on Carmel View

Carmel Valley townhome complexes funnel into eastbound conduit

Roughly 90 Sunstream residents signed a petition for a stop sign at the heavily used intersection in front of their complex.
Roughly 90 Sunstream residents signed a petition for a stop sign at the heavily used intersection in front of their complex.

Every day that she works at home, Niveen Farmer hears the screeching brakes of cars nearly crashing at the entrance to her Carmel Valley condo complex. Her home in the Sunstream complex — 259 townhomes built in the 1980s — is close to the main street into the complex, Caminito Mira del Mar, which empties out onto Carmel View.

Map

Entrance to Sunstream on Caminito Mira del Mar

Entrance to Sunstream on Caminito Mira del Mar

From where High Bluff Drive ends, Carmel View serves as an eastbound conduit for a number of complexes packed into the area, and its 3/8-mile approach to her complex from the west is a long curving downhill road where drivers tend to exceed the 35 mph speed limit.

"Going out of Sunstream it's white knuckles," she said. In the morning, eastbound drivers on Carmel View also have the sun in their faces.

Sponsored
Sponsored

"It's just this incredible blind spot for people leaving Sunstream, and you inch out and inch out and then cars come speeding at you," she said.

About 90 other residents — Sunstream has 259 homes — signed a petition for a stop sign at the heavily used intersection. It was the last chance to get stop signs, since the city traffic engineers rejected the neighborhood's request based on their traffic studies.

Caminito Mira del Mar — the subdivision's exit — has a stop sign and poor visibility. The cross street, Carmel View, has a blind spot and no stop sign. That's what Farmer and her neighbor, Kate Ditzler set out to change. 

"We were met with zero opposition," Farmer said. "We've had several individuals tell us how glad they are that we're doing this — people who had their own near misses or who saw an accident there."

Farmer first asked for a stop sign in 2007, she said. "When my son was born, I started staying home and I'd just hear the most awful screeching brakes and horns."

Now she works at home and she can see the intersection throughout the day. It isn't just cars using the road.

"It's very busy.... Joggers, pedestrians, children going to the middle school, dog owners," she said. "I hear horns all the time."

On March 23, the Carmel Valley Planning Group approved her request for a second set of stop signs, transforming the intersection from a two-way stop to a four-way stop by adding stop signs on Carmel View.

"It's great, they totally get it," Farmer said.

Planning group members also wondered if they should ask the city for a painted crosswalk, an idea that got mixed reviews. Many people believe that a crosswalk without a stoplight or sign is unsafe because it gives pedestrians a false sense that every car will stop.

The group decided to ask the city to look at painting a crosswalk there as well.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Pet pig perches in pocket

Escondido doula gets a taste of celebrity
Next Article

Pet pig perches in pocket

Escondido doula gets a taste of celebrity
Roughly 90 Sunstream residents signed a petition for a stop sign at the heavily used intersection in front of their complex.
Roughly 90 Sunstream residents signed a petition for a stop sign at the heavily used intersection in front of their complex.

Every day that she works at home, Niveen Farmer hears the screeching brakes of cars nearly crashing at the entrance to her Carmel Valley condo complex. Her home in the Sunstream complex — 259 townhomes built in the 1980s — is close to the main street into the complex, Caminito Mira del Mar, which empties out onto Carmel View.

Map

Entrance to Sunstream on Caminito Mira del Mar

Entrance to Sunstream on Caminito Mira del Mar

From where High Bluff Drive ends, Carmel View serves as an eastbound conduit for a number of complexes packed into the area, and its 3/8-mile approach to her complex from the west is a long curving downhill road where drivers tend to exceed the 35 mph speed limit.

"Going out of Sunstream it's white knuckles," she said. In the morning, eastbound drivers on Carmel View also have the sun in their faces.

Sponsored
Sponsored

"It's just this incredible blind spot for people leaving Sunstream, and you inch out and inch out and then cars come speeding at you," she said.

About 90 other residents — Sunstream has 259 homes — signed a petition for a stop sign at the heavily used intersection. It was the last chance to get stop signs, since the city traffic engineers rejected the neighborhood's request based on their traffic studies.

Caminito Mira del Mar — the subdivision's exit — has a stop sign and poor visibility. The cross street, Carmel View, has a blind spot and no stop sign. That's what Farmer and her neighbor, Kate Ditzler set out to change. 

"We were met with zero opposition," Farmer said. "We've had several individuals tell us how glad they are that we're doing this — people who had their own near misses or who saw an accident there."

Farmer first asked for a stop sign in 2007, she said. "When my son was born, I started staying home and I'd just hear the most awful screeching brakes and horns."

Now she works at home and she can see the intersection throughout the day. It isn't just cars using the road.

"It's very busy.... Joggers, pedestrians, children going to the middle school, dog owners," she said. "I hear horns all the time."

On March 23, the Carmel Valley Planning Group approved her request for a second set of stop signs, transforming the intersection from a two-way stop to a four-way stop by adding stop signs on Carmel View.

"It's great, they totally get it," Farmer said.

Planning group members also wondered if they should ask the city for a painted crosswalk, an idea that got mixed reviews. Many people believe that a crosswalk without a stoplight or sign is unsafe because it gives pedestrians a false sense that every car will stop.

The group decided to ask the city to look at painting a crosswalk there as well.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Pet pig perches in pocket

Escondido doula gets a taste of celebrity
Next Article

Yo-Yo Ma, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky come to San Diego

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.