While flying over Northern Santa Barbara County’s neighborhoods, I can’t help but notice the signs: Slow down. Drive like your kids live here. Children at play.
There are already speed limit signs on residential streets telling drivers not to go faster than 25 mph (only a bit faster than the average airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow, I might add). Even if there aren’t speed limits posted in neighborhoods, narrow streets and a basic understanding of state laws should slow drivers’ roll. Right?
Apparently not. And it’s worse, much worse, on the highways. Though this Caltrans district has gone more than two decades without a worker losing their life to an errant driver, the agency annually honors those who’ve been killed while on the job. At the late-April ceremony in San Luis Obispo, eight hard hats sat atop orange cones honoring the district workers who’ve died since 1921.
Caltrans reported that last year, there were 12 work-related injuries of its employees. As of July 22, there have been 28 such injuries, according to Caltrans Safety Coordinator Susana Cruz. More than double last year’s total already! What’s going on?
Well, Caltrans, including the Central Coast’s District 5, is aiming to reduce those stats to zero by 2050.
“We really need the public to slow down and pay attention to the people that are out there. These are real people that we need to help go home to their families,” District 5 Director Scott Eades told the Sun. “It’s easy to feel frustrated when you come up in the back of a queue and you’re wondering what’s going on and you’re trying to get through your day. But that sense of frustration isn’t helping our folks that need to maintain the roadway.”
This should go without saying. Yet, there are drivers who yell at Caltrans workers on the side of the road. They holler. At the people who are fixing potholes, widening roads, mowing weeds, smoothing the asphalt we speed upon.
“In California, … I feel like our mentality is, ‘Hurry up, we have so much to do. Places to be,’” District 5 Public Information Officer Heidi Crawford said. “It’s obnoxious. … I’m not sure exactly what that is and what’s sped people up so much without realizing they’re human beings that are working their job.”
Caltrans has gotten smart in its approach by taking the message to new drivers. Crawford goes to Arroyo Grande High School to tell teens what those amber lights and orange signs are all about, and to empathize with the folks behind the hard hats.
Besides, in California, it’s the law. Move over or slow down for any emergency vehicles or construction workers.
“If you think about them as … a person that you care about deeply, you’d be very careful driving around them. You would move over. You would slow down. You would be patient,” she continued. “That’s what I try to emphasize.”
Let’s make some new signs and pay attention: Drive like your parents/friends/spouses/siblings work here.
The Canary’s average airspeed velocity is more like a laden swallow. Send coconuts to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 10, 2025.