No more left turns on a Monterey neighborhood street

Traffic congestion could be a thing of the past near the Presidio of Monterey after changes were made to security procedures at the Army installation entrances.

The Army looked at several of its installations and determined that more security was needed at all entry points.

The city of Monterey believed those changes would cause even more traffic than there already is in the early mornings.

Michael Curtin has been a Monterey resident for about 10 years and weighed on the new flow of traffic plan.

“I really enjoy it here and I guess the only thing about living up here in this wonderful bucolic environment is the fact that this street gets crowded at two times of the day,” said Curtin.

Curtin said traffic really backs up at 7:00a.m. and again just after 5:00p.m. Those living in the neighborhood near the Franklin St. gate said traffic gets so bad they can’t even back out of their driveways.

Now traffic engineers in Monterey are making traffic flow changes to try and deal with possible extra delays because of the Presidio security measures.

Starting Monday, at the stop sign on Bowen and Franklin Streets drivers will no longer be allowed to make left hand turns off Bowen Street into the Presidio of Monterey.

Monterey officials believe this change will help. However, Curtin is skeptical.

“It’d be nice to have a little more flow going through here…I don’t think it would be very effective for ameliorating the problem because not many people do turn left,” said Curtin.