OROVILLE — A 3-foot-wide buffer between parked cars and traveling cars was approved Tuesday for Montgomery Street, aimed at improving visibility around corners and providing a safe area for people getting in and out of cars.
In effect, the planned buffers “creates an illusion that traffic lanes are narrower,” keeping people closer to the center line of the road and calming traffic, said Fred Mayo, director of Public Works.
“I think we’ve all parked on Montgomery and we realize how narrow that road is when you open a door and a truck or car is going by,” Mayo said.
The Oroville City Council gave consensus Tuesday for staff to proceed with the improvements on Montgomery Street from Feather River Boulevard to Washington Avenue.
Some intersections are to receive painted 22-foot bulb-outs which, Mayo said, which too give an appearance that lanes are narrower than they are, as well as open opportunity to build ADA compliant accessible corners. Mayo said many of the corners are not ADA compliant.
The painted bulb-bouts are to be in place “as a temporary solution” until physical bulb-outs are installed, Mayo said.
Red painted curbs are also planned up 20 feet on each corner, leaving the space open for better visibility for pedestrian crossing.
Three public speakers spoke in favor of the changes, including Planning Commissioner Warren Jensen, who said he recommended Montgomery street be reserved as the main corridor for car access into the city.
“It’s part of a larger conversation that we’re having … to do with safe transportation around the downtown area. In particular, we want to have safe bicycle transportation,” Jensen said. “But we realize that Montgomery street — being the connection from the freeway to downtown — that we want to reserve that as the vehicle corridor.”
Jensen said encouraging drivers to use Montgomery Street and adding pedestrian improvements to other streets may help with excessive speeds in residential areas.
Fire responses
Cal Fire-Butte County Oroville Division Chief Chris Tenns reported to the council the Fire Department’s 2023 end of year statistics on calls and responses.
In one year, the department responded to 8,473 calls, about “two-thirds more than any other station county,” excluding Chico’s Fire Department, Tenns said.
Broken down by type, the department responded to calls including 6,358 medicals, 161 structure fires, 252 vegetation fires, 1014 other fires, 179 hazardous materials instances, 507 public assists and 2 assists to Oroville Police Department.
The department’s mutual aid with Butte County Fire Department and Cal Fire resulted in a number of assists.
The Oroville Fire Department helped respond to 1,535 Butte County Fire Department calls and 113 Cal Fire calls; it also received assistance for 2,577 calls from the Butte County Fire Department and 1,328 calls from Cal Fire.
