From FB group Orange Talk regarding accidents at Chapman and Jamboree
I stood on the balcony of the B bldg at Santiago Canyon College and watched the traffic going right through the middle of what is now D bldg, and saw bikers on their Harleys going 50 around the right hand turn lane from Chapman on to Santiago Canyon Road. That was before 1988, when they rerouted the roads to the way it is today. So high speed is nothing new at that point.
Back then, all those houses now south of the roads was the big empty piece of land that was where the college was originally supposed to be. It was the place where Handy Creek ran when there was enough rain, which seldom happened. The traffic was a small fraction of what it is now.
The college district had a study done and it foresaw a big growth in the number of people in that would be in the area, so they chose that land out in the boonies to build the college. Now there are tens of thousands of people there and the traffic is dozens of times higher.
It’s just a long way away from there to ‘down the road apiece’ and people want to get to their destinations ASAP. Speed kills, as they say. Back then there were accidents, but nowhere near the number we see today.
They monitor the speeds of traffic, and if they put up lower speed limit signs, people ignore them. Then the motorcycle cops ticket speeders and locals get pissed off and make a stink, and someone higher up pulls out the ‘fountain pen’ and gets the signs changed back again.
Until the next time the statistics show there’s a problem and the cycle repeats. 😕
