Community Corner
Effects of the State Route 52 Expansion Are Starting to Be Seen
Traffic has gone down where it was expected, but the survey had a surprise.
The state Route 52 extension is doing what it was hoped it would do, in more ways than one.
We were all told that when it opened, there would be almost immediate traffic decreases along Mission Gorge Road and Mast Boulevard, and somewhat less so on Magnolia Avenue.
That’s happened noticeably.
Find out what's happening in Santeewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Surveys now show that there has been a maximum traffic cut of 30 percent on Mission Gorge, and about 15 percent on Mast, mostly during rush hours on the weekdays.
That was more or less expected. What wasn’t so much expected was the up-to-38 percent increase in traffic along Cuyamaca Street, from the freeway northbound and back south.
Find out what's happening in Santeewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The Chamber of Commerce will be happy to know that the city attributes that to a lot more traffic headed for Trolley Square, and the Santee businesses operating around the Town Center area.
City Development Director Pedro Orso-Delgado wasn’t among those surprised.
“There’s obviously been a pickup in traffic around the Town Center area. More people are coming to use the stores and facilities there. We pretty much figured that might happen.”
One side effect that some people feared the freeway extension might bring has not come to pass—at least not in a major way. Some had worried that the freeway might cause more people to go around the Town Center area, to avoid having to fight traffic. That in turn might have had the effect of causing trouble for businesses trying to survive in what we’re laughingly calling the “economy” these days.
So far, nothing like that has happened. was apparently not because of the freeway.
“Yeah, we wondered about that,” said Mayor Randy Voepel. “But it looks as though they were simply a victim of the economy, and they were probably in trouble there long before the freeway was even a factor. It’s a tough economy for everyone.”
It’s generally considered a fact that, in a tough economy, restaurants are among the first businesses to go, as witness the in the Town Center, and the upcoming closure of the .
They may not be the last victims of the bad financial times in our town. But you can’t really blame it on the 52.
