On Tuesday, the City Council awarded a new contract to resurface and restripe about 16 miles of main east-west streets in Carlsbad to support safer speeds on our roadways, including:

• Carlsbad Village Drive, from I-5 to College Boulevard  
• Tamarack Avenue, from Carlsbad Boulevard to Carlsbad Village Drive  
• Cannon Road west of Avenida Encinas to Faraday Avenue  
• Poinsettia Lane, from Carlsbad Boulevard to Melrose Drive 
• La Costa Avenue, from I-5 to Fairway Lane, just past El Camino Real  
• Olivenhain Road, from the Encinitas city limits to Rancho Santa Fe Road  

The City of Carlsbad regularly resurfaces and restripes roads to keep our streets in top condition, free of cracks and potholes. In response to the traffic safety emergency, the timeline for resurfacing these streets has been accelerated, and is one of a dozen new initiatives the City Council approved in September 2022 as part of the Safer Streets Together plan. 

The resurfacing and restriping are part of the “engineering” approach to safer streets, where the city is taking a three-prong approach to traffic safety: enforcement, education and engineering. 

Why reduce speeding?

• Unsafe speed is the leading cause of severe collisions and fatal collisions in Carlsbad. 
• Unsafe speed is not necessarily the same thing as speeding.
• For instance, if the speed limit is 45 mph but traffic is heavy and most cars are moving closer to 30 mph, it may not be safe to drive 45.
• Speed is largely a function of roadway conditions or road design, not speed limits, as many people believe.
• People tend to drive as fast as conditions allow.
• Restriping roadways supports safer speeds on our roadways without affecting traffic flow. 
• Slowing down can go a long way toward preventing collisions and injuries. ‘

Here’s what the data says about speeding in Carlsbad from 2017 – March 2023.

How it works

As we narrow some traffic lanes in Carlsbad, people are noticing it feels uncomfortable. Here’s the rationale.

• We are using road design to change the way people drive. On some roads this means narrowing and reducing the number of vehicle lanes from four to three or two to one without affecting traffic flow.
• If you’re used to driving fast down a wide lane, you’re hopefully going to drive a little more slowly when the lane is narrowed.
• The restriping will also widen bike lanes and add buffers between cars and bikes where possible, which makes drivers and riders feel more comfortable on our roads.
• We’ve added some information about street design to our website, including examples of different ways street design works to change the behaviors of people who use our streets.

Watch a quick video that shows how restriping works.

Next steps

Construction is expected to start this summer and be completed in fall. 

More information

Safer Streets Plan 
Staff report