Annual survey shows Rohnert Park residents want traffic flow, downtown area

Traffic congestion on major streets is the top issue residents want Rohnert Park to tackle in the coming year, according to new data from the city’s third annual poll designed to gauge the community’s quality of life.

Of the more than 2,600 participants, 15 percent who responded to a question about the item most needed for overall improvement pointed to transportation flow as their greatest source of frustration in the county’s third-largest city. That’s up slightly from the 2017 survey, when about 11 percent of respondents thought traffic was the biggest obstacle facing Rohnert Park. The desire for constructing a cohesive downtown area came in second this year, with 7 percent.

“We’re not surprised by traffic being rated the No. 1 problem,” said Don Schwartz, Rohnert Park’s assistant city manager. “We’ve heard that anecdotally before, at community meetings, in social media and through word of mouth. But we’re already doing some things to address it and didn’t wait for the results to come back from the survey.”

The city is working with the California Department of Transportation to align traffic signals to try and loosen gridlock, particularly during rush hour on its main commuter arteries. That creates a challenge, however, because Caltrans prioritizes keeping freeway traffic from backing up while Rohnert Park’s primary goal is to prevent jams on city streets.

Working together, the two hope to develop strategies that strike a balance at stoplights for proper turnover depending on time of day and number of cars on the road. The Rohnert Park Expressway at Commerce Boulevard, and Golf Course Drive, also at Commerce Boulevard, are two known problem areas. New smart systems with camera technology that can change the signal when there is a bottleneck are planned at both locations by this summer.

The prior year’s survey identified potholes and necessary street repairs as the city’s greatest drawback, about 14 percent of responses. That issue dropped to a distant fourth place in the 2018 data, at ?5.5 percent.

Schwartz said the change in people’s views of infrastructure may be a result of the city committing more money and adding an additional employee to fix roads. In fiscal year 2016-17, $5.1 million was budgeted for maintaining city streets, but that was increased to $8.8 million in ?2017-18, according to figures furnished by the city.

It’s because of proactive responses such as this, Schwartz said, that the city believes the percentage of residents who responded they feel Rohnert Park is generally moving in the right direction has continued to tick upward since the yearly study began in 2016. In that first year, ?62 percent of participants agreed the city was on the correct path, while 72 percent responded approvingly this time based on the results released March 13.

The percentage of residents who believe the city maintains a sense of community has grown by a few percentage points over that time, too - now up to 65 percent. And with overwhelmingly positive marks for its city parks and the city owned and operated Callinan Sports & Fitness Center, 76 percent of people said Rohnert Park offers a good or better quality of life.

Questions on the survey also help local law enforcement make judgments about the job it’s doing. Just 4 percent of responses note that an individual felt at least somewhat unsafe in his or her neighborhood during daylight, versus 24 percent after dark.

Of those same participants, ?13 percent regarded violent crime, including rape, assault and robbery, as a major or minor problem in their neighborhood, while 43 percent said property crimes, including theft and burglary, was a problem. The latter tally is up slightly from the past two years of data and matches FBI statistics across the United States, according to Rohnert Park Public Safety Chief Brian Masterson.

“Certainly in California property crime is up, especially stolen vehicles,” he said. “Some of that is related to changes (by lawmakers) in Sacramento regarding the release of the prison population. We can’t release violent offenders, so we started releasing offenders in for property crimes, and they’re not doing the same amount of time as they used to.

“Crime overall isn’t just the work of the police. The police are too few for a community of 43,000 (people). We do the best we can, but we can do a much, much better job by using force multiples and convincing citizens and residents to play a larger role in the community’s safety. If they see something suspicious or any criminal activity, call us.”

Residents voiced largely positive opinions of the city’s Department of Public Safety, in which officers perform the dual role of law enforcement and fire protection. The impressions of police ranked at ?least somewhat favorable among ?86 percent of respondents, and ?94 percent concerning the fire service. Seventy-one percent of people said they found police very courteous and professional during their most recent interaction with an officer or staff.

“There’s a huge value for us to know what people are thinking,” said Schwartz. “It’s a data point, and not all the data we use to help inform us. But it’s really a very valuable tool. It’s really helpful in knowing what people are interested in and how we set our priorities.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin Fixler at 707-521-5336 or at kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kfixler.