The San Luis Obispo Council of Governments (SLOCOG) is hosting safety field walks throughout San Luis Obispo County to get feedback on changes they could make to make the roads safer.
Some community members spent the afternoon walking or driving around Avila Beach to raise awareness about the crashes that happen in the town every year.
Avila Beach is a popular spot for locals and tourists alike.
“I've significantly seen the traffic increase,” said Kristen McKiernan.
Mckiernan has driven Avila Beach Drive daily for the past 25 years.
“Avila has grown exponentially and it's time to re-look at the transportation routes to getting in and out of Avila. There's one way in and one way out,” she said.
Engineers, community members, and government officials took to the Avila roadways on Friday.
“All good transportation planning starts with fieldwork,” said John Dinunzio, SLOCOG Regional Transportation Planner.
Over the past five years, 27 crashes have been reported on Avila Beach Drive, according to SLOCOG, and major injuries were reported in six of them.
Some in the community surveyed the area looking for improvements and raising awareness during a three-mile walk on Friday.
“I'm just hoping to find some opportunities for improvement and get them implemented,” said Matthew Matter.
The Avila Beach area is one of nine communities conducting community survey field walks in the unincorporated part of SLO County.
Once all nine surveys are done, SLOCOG will take the information collected from all the locations and put it into a capital improvement program.
These walks are all tied to the regional road safety action plan and the data from the walks will be taken to the SLOCOG board in April to hopefully make some improvements to the roadways.
SLOCOG received a $130,000 grant from the Office of Traffic Safety, part of that for the field walks and the other part for the Safe Streets Forum in September.
The outcome of the field walk will be presented at the 2025 SLO Safe Streets Forum at the end of September at the SLO Vets Hall.
