Watsonville launches pedestrian and bicyclist safety campaign

The bright new signs lining the Main St. corridor in Watsonville are hard to miss, and the city hopes the messages on them are just as noticeable.

As part of safety campaign the city and police department have identified areas to post signs reminding drivers not to text and drive, to share the road and look both ways. Police say drivers need to slow down and be aware of other people on the road.

The signs are also there for pedestrians and bicyclists to do their part, “They need to obey the rules of the road. If you’re crossing the street, use the cross walk, wait for the signal to turn green to allow you to cross the street. If you’re a bicycle ride where you’re supposed to, you need to stop at stop signs and obey the same rules of the road as a car does,” said Sgt. Donny Thul with the Watsonville Police Department.

In the past year, there have been 75 traffic collisions on the Main St. corridor. Thirty of those have resulted in injury, and two resulted in death.

The mayor of Watsonville, Francisco Estrada, said it’s undeniable the city’s population is growing, which is why they need to do their part to keep everyone in it safe. “I don’t think it was really designed for the amount of people we have right now and we’re here in 2019 and we’re almost at 60,000 and so we have to be thoughtful and intentional. You know we have more people, but we still have the same amount of space. You know how can we be more efficient, how an we be more intentional with our space is really an aim of the city council.”