Local City Officials Meet to Discuss Regional Traffic Flow

Lanes were closed both directions on Railroad Canyon Road Dec. 6 while crews worked to repair a power outage.

The City of Menifee is working with neighboring cities to improve communications with each other and with residents in case of an emergency in shared regions.

According to City Manager Rob Johnson, a recent meeting he attended was brought about by two incidents on Railroad Canyon Road that resulted in massive traffic jams on that important east-west artery.

On Dec. 3, a single-car accident near the intersection of Railroad Canyon Road and Church Street in Lake Elsinore knocked out power to a wide area. While crews worked at the accident scene, traffic backed up for miles on Railroad Canyon. Johnson said the City of Canyon Lake had no electronic signs to display, warning motorists of trouble ahead. By the time word got out, many drivers heading westward from Menifee were trapped, having no other route to take through the canyon.

A similar incident occurred just three days later, on Dec. 6, when another single-car accident took out a power pole on Railroad Canyon Road just east of Interstate 15. Again, traffic was backed up for miles and many motorists were frustrated because they had no way to turn around and no advance notice.

Realizing the severity of a shutdown on such an important regional thoroughfare, city officials from Lake Elsinore, Menifee, Canyon Lake, Murrieta and surrounding areas met with representatives from Southern California Edison to discuss ways in which communication can be improved, perhaps minimizing such traffic jams.

"We want to design protocol for regional reporting in cases like this," Johnson said. "If that can happen on Railroad Canyon, it can happen on Bundy Canyon or Clinton Keith. We might be individual cities, but we're part of a region. We need to work together."

More meetings will be scheduled to address the problem, Johnson said.