Downtown Joshua Tree may be getting a new crosswalk.
The area of Twentynine Palms Highway near Sunset Road has become a busy stretch of road. Controlled by CalTrans, the road is currently the primary paved road for travelling through the Morongo Basin east to west. It’s close proximity to Joshua Tree’s primary business district has led to a significant increase in pedestrian traffic as visitors walk to popular restaurants and shops, roadside sellers, and the Saturday’s Farmer’s Market.
The area at Sunset Road has increasingly become a place where pedestrians make illegal crossing. The nearby intersection at Twentynine Palms and Park Boulevard is less than a half mile away, but tourists and locals have used crossing the highway at Sunset Road for a more direct connection between businesses on the north and south sides of the highway.
Several serious accidents have occurred in this area, especially as the crossing situation is aggravated by weekend crowds. The most serious occurred on March 9, in which a vehicle veered into an open market, hospitalizing two.
San Bernardino County Supervisor Dawn Rowe, who represents the 3rd County District which includes the Morongo Basin, discussed her work with the state to create a crosswalk at Sunset Road. Supervisor Rowe was a guest on the Z107.7 Up Close Show, where she discussed the issue with host Gary Daigneault.
Rowe described a crosswalk style that she would like to see installed, saying,
“If you’ve never noticed it you get up to the top of the Morongo grade and there’s like a weird signal that’s never activated unless it’s a crosswalk and somebody hits the button and then it stops every traffic and the person crosses. I’d like one in downtown Joshua Tree in the village. Caltrans says that they will think about it.
“We’ve been working with our State elected officials, Senator Roscalicie Ochoa-Bogh and Assemblymember Greg Wallis. They have been helping to advocate from the top down while I’m going from the bottom up and that’s painfully long.
“It will be at Sunset Road for sure. Everybody jaywalks there. Everybody’s trying to get across and I get it! I don’t want to go down to Park (Boulevard) and cross and come back.”
We contacted CalTrans for the status of a possible crosswalk in the Downtown Joshua Tree area, but did not receive a response.
