A San Carlos neighborhood group is moving forward with its push to bring new traffic-calming measures to the busy Murray Park Drive, near Lake Murray Park and the San Carlos Little League fields.
At an Oct. 8 planning group meeting, volunteer planners voted to send a letter to the city supporting a three-way stop sign at the entrance to the Little League fields and a flashing pedestrian crosswalk near Lake Murray Park.
Neighbors and parkgoers say that without additional traffic controls, drivers speed along the winding, hilly roadway past Lake Murray Park, where families often park along the side of the narrow two-lane street.
Over the years, residents have asked the city to install stop signs or speed humps near the park. In 2020 and 2025, city engineers denied those requests, saying traffic studies failed to meet the required criteria.
Residents also say they have witnessed young children dart into the street while heading to the popular neighborhood park. Most recently, a toddler was struck by a vehicle.
Travis Taylor, a Cal Fire captain, was coaching his son’s Little League team at the San Carlos fields when he learned that a child had been hit.
Taylor, who spoke in support of the traffic improvements at the Oct. 8 planning meeting, described what he saw.
“You may not have ever experienced having to tell someone that their child is dead, but I have, and it’s not something I wish I ever had to do,” Taylor told planning group members. “We came incredibly close to that.”
The child survived, though Taylor said the next incident may not have the same outcome.
“Please, I implore you, do not make my people come to this scene again with something that could be prevented with the ease of a stop sign,” Taylor said.
For neighbors and community planners, the push for a safer Murray Park Drive comes nearly a year after Pershing Middle School sixth-grader Andrew Olsen was struck and killed while crossing Jackson Drive on his way to school.
For years, residents who lived near that intersection had asked the city to consider installing stop signs because of visibility concerns.
Within weeks of Olsen’s death, the city installed a stop sign at the location.
“After that tragedy, it was a very quick turnaround,” Taylor said. “I’m asking that we do that before we have another tragedy, before somebody else dies.”
The planning group agreed to send a letter to City Councilmember Raul Campillo.
In a statement to Times of San Diego, Campillo said he plans to act.
“Working directly with the community to improve pedestrian safety is something I put a premium on,” Campillo said. “That’s why my office and I have been working closely with those who are asking for these stop signs. With the vote of the Navajo Community Planning Group, I will be sending a memo to the city’s Transportation Department and Mayor Todd Gloria’s office requesting that the stop signs be installed in accordance with Council Policy 200-08.”
