The Morning Turn Rules Around Ivy Drive Are a Pilot, and This Fall Is the Test

On school-day mornings, there's a no-left-turn sign where Moraga Way meets the north end of Ivy Drive. Orinda's own city engineering staff recommended taking it down this year. The sign is still standing because the City Council voted on April 7, 2026 to keep it. The rest of the morning rules around it are part of a trial that's being measured right now.

That trial is the city's Ivy Drive Pilot Program. It started August 1, 2026, and staff asked for it to run the full school year, through May 31, 2027. Traffic counts are scheduled for August through December 2026, and city staff expect to bring findings and recommendations to council in February 2027. If you've been turning, waiting and detouring around Ivy, Coral, Eastwood and Ardith drives since August, your drive is part of the data. With this post going up in early November, about two months of counting are left.

The sign staff wanted gone, and why it stayed

The left-turn ban at north Ivy isn't new. When the city's Traffic Safety Advisory Committee reviewed it in 2025, it was already in place from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. on weekdays during the school year. The rule dates to Resolution 15-02, Traffic Order 115, which bars left turns from Moraga Way onto Ivy Drive on school days, Monday through Friday, from 7 to 8 a.m. At a February 17, 2026 study session, council asked staff to look at a pilot program as an alternative to that sign.

The April 7 staff report recommended removing the sign. According to the report, traffic study findings supported removing the north Ivy restriction as long as Moraga Way and the Ivy Drive neighborhood got targeted operational changes alongside it. Staff described the package as one that would "discourage cut-through traffic" and support school access while the city studied real traffic movements.

The draft resolution in the April 7 agenda packet followed that recommendation and listed Traffic Order 115 as rescinded. Council took a different route. Lamorinda Weekly reported that a motion to adopt the full package failed. Council then approved everything in the package except removing the north Ivy sign, and Mayor Brandyn Iverson cast the only vote against that motion. In late October, The Orinda News still described the city as having "banned left turns onto Ivy Drive off Moraga Way in the mornings."

The vote fields on the packet copy of the resolution are blank, so the reported vote is the record of what council decided. Based on that vote and the October report, the pilot running now isn't exactly the one staff designed. Staff's version took out the north Ivy sign. The version council approved keeps that sign and adds new restrictions around it.

What the morning actually looks like now

The new orders are in Resolution 10-26, Traffic Order 238, which took effect August 1, 2026. They apply on "school weekdays," which the resolution defines as weekdays when Miramonte High, Orinda Intermediate or Del Rey Elementary is in session.

The north Ivy sign is still on the older 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. schedule, and everything around it now runs 7:30 to 8:30. Between 7:00 and 8:30, the turns you can make at the edges of the Ivy neighborhood change twice. Staff said the new timing was meant to follow changes in school start times. Keeping the north Ivy sign meant one restriction stayed on the old clock.

An earlier order also applies. On March 17, 2026, council approved Resolution 16-26, Traffic Order 241, which added an all-way stop at Coral Drive and Ardith Drive along with striping and signal timing changes on Moraga Way.

There's also a measure that isn't on the list. Lowering the speed limit on Ivy Drive and Ardith Drive from 25 mph to 15 mph had fairly broad support during the council discussion, according to Lamorinda Weekly, as a way to make the cut-through slower than staying on Moraga Way. Traffic Order 238 doesn't include a speed limit change. The posted limits are 25 mph until a separate action says otherwise.

Why this particular fall carries so much weight

Staff asked council to approve the whole school year even though counting only runs five months. The extra time is for reviewing the data and preparing recommendations. The estimated cost for the changes and monitoring is about $15,000, which includes the additional traffic counts. In practice, that means the August-to-December counts are the evidence council will have in front of it in February.

The Orinda Union School District also changed its bell schedules in August. Second and third graders all start at 8 a.m. now, replacing the old early bird and late bird groups, and Orinda Intermediate lets out at 3:15 p.m. instead of 3:30. Superintendent Aida Glimme told The Orinda News that staggered release times at OIS and Del Rey stayed "exactly the same," and that the city's many changes have made it hard for the district to pin down what effect, if any, its schedule changes had on traffic. City Manager Linda Smith said in the same report that the city hasn't asked for any bell schedule changes. The counts will capture the corridor with both sets of changes in it.

The baseline doesn't look good. Mayor Iverson told The Orinda News that "traffic is definitely worse this year." She said the drive from the Wagner Ranch area to Miramonte, about 15 minutes with no traffic, can take 45 to 55 minutes at the morning peak. She also described Coral and Ivy drives as streets that commuters to Miramonte have long used to get around Moraga Way. That cut-through is what the pilot is trying to break up.

What arrives before the counting ends

Three more things could change morning traffic on Moraga Way during the same window, and each would show up in the same counts.

Smart Signals. Smith told The Orinda News that "by the end of this year," Orinda will begin construction on its citywide signal modernization, upgrading legacy signals to an interconnected network to smooth traffic flow. The work is part of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority's Countywide Smart Signals project, which covers about 365 intersections countywide and lists Orinda as a stakeholder. No Moraga Way intersection list or start date has been published.

Sidewalks and crosswalks. The city has funded more flashing crosswalks and wants to close the gaps in the sidewalks on Coral and Ivy drives so children walking those streets aren't in the roadway. No construction schedule for those segments has been announced.

Buses. Councilmember Cara Hoxie, who chairs the Lamorinda bus authority, said the agency is surveying families to see whether there's enough demand for a Del Rey Elementary route. Del Rey isn't on the bus system now because most of its students walk or are driven from nearby neighborhoods. The Lamorinda School Bus Program lists 2026–27 annual round-trip passes at $888 and one-way passes at $592. It also offers eight monthly installments of $120 or $80, which add up to $960 and $640. Its Orinda schedules cover Glorietta, Sleepy Hollow and Wagner Ranch elementary schools and Orinda Intermediate.

The calendar from here

1. Now through December 2026: traffic counts and other monitoring continue around Ivy, Coral, Eastwood and Ardith drives.
2. By the end of 2026: Smart Signals construction is expected to begin in Orinda, per the city manager.
3. February 2027: staff expect to present findings and recommendations to City Council.
4. May 31, 2027: the end of the pilot term staff requested, which covers the full school year.

The February report is where the north Ivy sign could come up again. Council kept the sign over a staff recommendation once, and the next decision will rest on the counts being taken now. City council meeting agendas and staff reports are posted on Orinda's public meeting portal, where the April 7 item, its staff report and Traffic Order 238 are all available.

This post is general information about city traffic orders, not legal advice. The signs posted at each intersection are the rules that apply.

I live and work in Orinda, and Moraga Way at 7:45 a.m. is part of my week too. If you're near Ivy Drive and trying to figure out how the corridor fits into a move, a remodel or just your morning, Alexis Thompson is happy to talk it through. If you'd like to see how your home's value compares this season, start with a free home valuation.