Encinitas council members will host a special session Wednesday afternoon to collect the public’ comments on roadway safety issues and look into opportunities for making improvements.
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Set to start at 4 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall, 505 S. Vulcan Ave., the meeting will allow the council to “get the facts out there” about what Encinitas has done so far and also create space for “an open, honest discussion,” Mayor Bruce Ehlers said Tuesday morning.
The meeting has been scheduled for this week because it couldn’t happen sooner — the council’s June meetings were booked solid with budget issues and other items, and the council was on summer recess in July, the mayor said.
Area residents, particularly the members of the Safe Streets Encinitas group, have been lobbying city officials for many months to look into pedestrian and cyclist conditions in light of recent deaths and injuries. They’ve asked the city to declare a public emergency, host public meetings on the issue and start upgrading area roadway conditions.
Safe Streets Encinitas, a group that formed after the death of 12-year-old Emery Chalekian in April 2025, has been calling for a number of roadway changes, including the installation of red-light traffic cameras at some major intersections. Emery was struck by a vehicle and killed while walking in a crosswalk a block east of the busy Encinitas Boulevard and El Camino Real intersection. She is just one of several Encinitas young people killed on the city’s streets within the last several years.
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In July, 17-year-old Seraphina Rose Fadick was struck and killed by a vehicle while crossing El Camino del Norte. And, in June 2023, 15-year-old Brodee Champlain-Kingman was struck and killed while turning left on his e-bike from South El Camino Real onto Santa Fe Drive.
A city staff report produced for Wednesday’s meeting states that Encinitas focuses on five areas when it comes roadway safety issues: roadway engineering, education programs, regular enforcement actions, encouragement of “positive behaviors” and continued evaluation of roadway safety data.
Encinitas has spent nearly $20 million a year in the last several years to improve roadway safety, including lowering speed limits citywide, improving bicycle and pedestrian facilities and changing traffic signal timing, the report states. The city recently added two new traffic enforcement deputies and has partnered with area school districts to help pay for more crossing guards near area schools.
Ehlers, who campaigned in part on improving roadway pavement conditions and eliminating potholes in Encinitas, said he wants the city to increase its roadway resurfacing projects, saying “bicyclists, in particular, are very sensitive to rough roads.” He does not support adding red-light cameras, he said.
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