Traffic circles could work for three intersections along busy Paseo Delicias in Rancho Santa Fe and two intersections on San Dieguito Road in Fairbanks Ranch, the county Traffic Advisory Committee said yesterday.

Committee members said they could not recommend the circles, also called roundabouts, without a more technical study of other options.

But the county Board of Supervisors can at its March 24 meeting. The committee voted unanimously to accept a consultant's inch-thick evaluation of roundabouts for the five intersections.

"It's everything we would have hoped," Keith Behner, Rancho Santa Fe planning director, said after the committee's vote in San Diego.

"We're very happy with their decision."

Some committee members wanted to recommend roundabouts for the intersections of Paseo Delicias and Via de la Valle, El Montevideo and El Camino del Norte in Rancho Santa Fe; and San Dieguito Road at Circa del Norte West and Circa del Sur West in Fairbanks Ranch.

But committee secretary Tom Parry, who ran the meeting, said the group should not make a recommendation without a more detailed study of all options.

However, Parry said, "it appears to me in all five cases roundabouts are viable."

The committee includes delegates from the county Department of Public Works, the state Department of Transportation and the California Highway Patrol.

Paseo Delicias connects Lomas Santa Fe Drive on the west and Del Dios Highway on the east, providing one of the few east-west links from the coast to inland communities such as Escondido.

For years, Rancho Santa Fe residents have fought proposals for one of the options for the intersections -- signals.

"Signals have been repeatedly rejected by the community and stop signs have not worked," said Jim Ashcraft, a member of the Rancho Santa Fe Association's Road and Traffic Committee.

He was one of five members of the public to address the committee.

Roundabouts -- in which traffic goes around a circle to reach the street on the other side of an intersection -- are considered a way to slow traffic but keep it flowing.

They are consistent with the rural character of the communities involved, resident John Ingalls said.

Rural or not, some of the affected intersections are suffering an F -- the worst grade for traffic congestion in California -- level of service during peak times, with traffic backed up at least 40 cars.

The consultant's report said the roundabouts could improve the level of service during those times.

Primarily, Ashcraft said, residents want to stop motorists from driving through quiet residential streets in order to avoid long backups at stop signs.

David Abrams, executive director of the Fairbanks Ranch Association, said it concurs that the best method of traffic control for the two San Dieguito Road intersections would be roundabouts.

Abrams said the intersections of Circa del Sur West and Circa del Norte West mark the entrance to the Fairbanks Ranch community, and signals simply wouldn't be appropriate there.

Roundabouts cost about $350,000 to build, about twice the $150,000 to $175,000 it costs to install traffic signals. Committee members noted that there would be operating costs for the signals.

Lola Sherman: (760) 476-8241; lola.sherman@uniontrib.com

Credit: STAFF WRITER

Traffic circles could work for three intersections along busy Paseo Delicias in Rancho Santa Fe and two intersections on San Dieguito Road in Fairbanks Ranch, the county Traffic Advisory Committee said yesterday.

Some committee members wanted to recommend roundabouts for the intersections of Paseo Delicias and Via de la Valle, El Montevideo and El Camino del Norte in Rancho Santa Fe; and San Dieguito Road at Circa del Norte West and Circa del Sur West in Fairbanks Ranch.

[David Abrams] said the intersections of Circa del Sur West and Circa del Norte West mark the entrance to the Fairbanks Ranch community, and signals simply wouldn't be appropriate there.