Parallel speed bumps could be deployed to combat the growing practice of renegade drivers doing donuts and even participating in side shows in Manteca intersections.

Councilman Dave Breitenbucher brought up the issue of illegal stunt driving during Tuesday’s council meeting after receiving citizen complaints.

The illegal maneuvers do more than just markup pavement.

They create safety hazards, impede the flow of traffic, often wake up nearby neighbors, and — although minor — adds unnecessarily to air quality problems.

The problem of donuts being done in intersections is a growing problem south of the 120 Bypass where intersections — with two lanes entering from each direction — are ideal for sideshows and doing donuts.

The parallel speed bumps don’t impede traffic driving in lanes. Instead, they are positioned to make it impossible to do donuts without striking them.

Public Works Director Carl Brown said he has been in contact with the City of San Francisco that last summer deployed speed bumps in such a manner to deter sideshows.

Brown said he wants to mare sure they are indeed reducing the problem and whether there are any issues created by the speed bumps before considering recommending them for Manteca.

Manteca last year tightened its ordinance to combat sideshows that has been happening on Atherton Drive, most of the time near the Orchard Valley shopping mall, at night.

Organizers of the impromptu legal gathering, like not just the sparsely driven intersection at night but the fact it has close freeway access to allow participants to flee afterwards.

Not only does Manteca impound the vehicles of participants when they are caught, but spectators are also cited.

Downtown traffic

safety concern

Center Street traffic is getting a bit too fast.

And the solution the city is pondering to slow drivers down is making the intersection of Sycamore Avenue and Center Street a four-way stop.

Brown indicated the inter-department team — police, public works, and engineer — charged with meeting frequently to address traffic safety concerns, is looking at the four-way stop option.

Brown shared what the team was pondering after a Manteca resident expressed frustrations during Tuesday’s City Council meeting  with drivers that often roll through the four-way stop at Maple Avenue and Center Street.

The habit presents a danger to pedestrians that are in crosswalks and other motorists.

The resident said he believes some drivers actually don’t see the stop sign.

He suggested placing “lighted” stop signs — ones ringed with flashing red LED lights such as at several intersections on Woodward Avenue — to make the stop signs stick out.

A growing number of drivers in the past year have been using Center Street to bypass Yosemite Avenue congestion while traveling across Manteca east to west.

If a four-way stop is created, it will leave Acacia Avenue that has both the library as well as tennis courts and new community garden as the only intersection in the downtown stretch of Center Street between Main Street and the railroad tracks without stop signs or a traffic signal.

Brown said the four-way stop would serve to slow traffic down heading both east and west on Center Street as it moves through the Sycamore Avenue intersection.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com