Aptos residents frustrated over Hwy 1 detours spilling onto residential streets

During most summer days, Aptos Beach Drive and other surrounding streets in the small beachside town of Aptos are relatively calm. Then comes fall, and the start of school.

“We see the cars lining up,” said Aptos resident Debbie Nielsen-Conroy, “all the way up and all the way back Aptos Beach Drive.”

Greg Dougherty, who lives nearby, said it’s hard to walk through the neighborhood because it’s so busy.

“I walk three dogs, a lot of times I am just dodging cars early in the morning,” Dougherty said.

In addition to school, the problem is exacerbated by drivers getting off Highway 1 when traffic is backed up and using the neighborhood’s streets as a detour. Neighbors say it’s not so bad in the summer, but it’s a different story when school starts up again.

“I guess when all the kids are back in school, maybe Cabrillo (College),” Conroy said. “That’s when it starts up again.”

Dougherty says it has only gotten worse as navigation apps like Waze have become more popular.

“These are not through streets, these are neighborhood streets, very narrow, we have kids that play on them,” Dougherty said .

It is for that reason Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend has been in talks with Google, which purchased Waze in 2013.

“These apps are creating some real problems for neighborhoods and what we want to do is have a dialogue about how to improve it,” Friend said. “We are not trying to find a way to restrict the use in general of the apps.”

During a July 31 meeting with the company, Friend says he discussed the problem with the tech-giant and thinks the solution has to do with being able to share road information. The idea would be to provide Waze with a list of “residential designated streets” that are not designed for heavy traffic, according to Friend. Those streets would become off-limits for detours.

In November, voters approved a half cent local sales tax with some of the revenue paying for Highway 1 to be widened. In three different projects, merge lanes would be added from Soquel Drive to State Park Drive. The hope is that a wider freeway will be a less congested one.

For neighbors such as Conroy, the countdown until school starts is already underway so she is glad to hear some work is being done.

“I hope the county can figure out a solution to this,” Conroy said.

We reached out to Google for comment. They did not respond in time to be included in this story.