Milpas Roundabout. Over $5 Million of your tax dollars spent to slow your drive more dangerously, while making it look better on paper.

This photo shows a vehicle that was hit by a driver with a license, but no registration, no insurance and poor English skills. The accident rate at the Milpas intersection has gone up a minimum of 350% since this intersection was expensively and expansively "improved." However the accidents are not reflected in the City reports, because the requirements for reporting accidents were revised to over $500, a tow away, or a bodily injury. The State changed this in order to decrease the flood of paperwork that was overwhelming the State DMV. Also SB police stated that they are no longer "encouraged" to visit minor accidents, and that many drivers on Milpas do not have legal documents.


Measure D is a wasteful extra tax plan that made some people wealthy while leaving the designers and politicians unaccountable for the infrastructure mess in Santa Barbara County. This video of the Milpas Roundabout, which bid for $2.5 Million, but ended at $5.3-$5.6 Million dollars, shows the backup on the offramp at non-peak hours with low vehicle count. Also the backup of Southbound Milpas headed into the roundabout should not happen if the design worked in urban traffic. It is a costly failure that has increased accidents. Since the speed through the insection has been greatly decreased, the huge increase in accident rate has not been reported to the State. Therefore the City can slow your drive and make it more dangerous, while making it look better on paper.

Despite the statistics of this traffic design failure, the Santa Barbara Traffic Planners are still trying to build more of these around town. This will also make the replacement of the Milpas Undercrossing bridge (coming soon) more difficult.