The Cupertino Courier
News
City makes funding bid for Garden Gate safety
By Cody Kraatz
Since 2003, the city of Cupertino has applied for $450,000 from the federally funded Safe Routes to School program to make safety improvements for children walking and riding to school in the Garden Gate neighborhood.
The city submitted its most recent application in January with the help of Jay Cena, a public safety commissioner and the parent of a fifth-grader at Garden Gate Elementary School .
"One of the main reasons this particular area is so ripe for the grant is this portion, a good portion of the city, was county at one time, so we lack sidewalks and other basic things," said Cena. Streets in Garden Gate have curbs, but only dirt sidewalks in front of many of the older homes. "It's also a pretty large corridor. It's not serving just the Garden Gate area," said Cena.
More than 15,000 vehicles travel on N. Stelling Road each day between Stevens Creek Boulevard and Interstate 280, according to the most recent traffic counts. About 1,500 pass through that stretch in one hour during the peak traffic hours between 7 and 9 a.m. and 4 and 7 p.m.
"It's a pretty good volume for this kind of street," said Glenn Goepert, assistant director of public works.
"It's a neighborhood collector. It's difficult to say exactly where they're going, but it's safe to say that they distribute throughout the city from this point."
In comparison, about 26,300 vehicles travel in both directions on the same section of Wolfe Road each day.
The goal of the Safe Routes to School program is to get kindergarten through eighth-grade students to walk and bicycle to school. That requires making routes safer and also more accessible for students with disabilities.
Cupertino has already received two grants in the $400,000 to $450,000 range. One was for the tri-school area near Monta Vista High School and the other in the neighborhood along Bollinger Road near at Cupertino High School and Hyde Middle School.
The volume of applications and the previous grants may, in part, explain why the Garden Gate project has yet to be funded.
"I do believe that they need to spread it around because there are so many applicants," said Goepfert.
Among the improvements included in the most recent application:
An additional 3,700 feet of paved sidewalks to make them continuous through the neighborhood, at a cost of approximately $200,000.
Upgrading the traffic signal at Greenleaf Drive and N. Stelling Road, including bicycle-sensitive detectors, pedestrian push buttons and better walk/don't walk signals. The estimated cost is $117,000.
Around $36,000 to install curb ramps that meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
If the application is rejected, the city will look at more modest sidewalk construction and ways to modify the traffic signal using money from the general fund, according to Goepfert.
To learn more about Safe Routes to School, visit www.saferoutesinfo.org.
