The city of Santa Clarita placed an electronic traffic message board on Newhall Ranch Road near McBean Parkway on Wednesday to alert commuters of duck crossings on the eight-lane road.
Councilwoman Marsha McLean proposed her idea for the electronic sign, which faces east, at Tuesday night’s Santa Clarita City Council meeting.
“I’ve been seeing on social media a lot about the poor ducks and geese trying to cross Newhall Ranch Road,” she said. “We have those portable, flashing-light trailer signs put up and telling people this is a duck crossing and geese crossing with their little babies, and slow down.”
During the spring and summer months, ducklings and goslings follow their mothers as they go between the 15-acre lake at the center of the Bridgeport residential community and a smaller lake next to the Bridgeport Marketplace in Valencia. The two bodies of water are separated by Newhall Ranch Road.
The sign will stay as needed during the duckling and gosling hatching season, according to Carrie Lujan, the city’s public information officer.
An existing yellow diamond-shaped duck crossing sign is located on a lamppost on the southeast corner of the intersection of Newhall Ranch and McBean.
Council members agreed with McLean’s proposal. Mayor Pro Tem Laurene Weste asked city staff to also explore long-term solutions to the duck crossings.
