Council approves a traffic study for Prides Crossing
By Kara Chalmers
The Saratoga City Council approved a traffic study done on the Prides Crossing area in the city on Jan. 17, and thus appropriated a total of $5,200 from the city's general fund to implement the study's traffic-calming suggestions.
Council members emphasized that while the move does not symbolize the end of traffic woes for all residents in Prides Crossing, it is a start.
Prides Crossing is the area enclosed by Highway 85, Saratoga Creek, Prospect Road and Cox Avenue. The city commissioned the study in the face of complaints from Prides Crossing residents about increasing speed and traffic volume since the opening of the Highway 85 interchanges near the neighborhood.
A handful of residents spoke at the Jan. 17 meeting, saying the "consensus" plan--which adds eight speed-limit and stop-ahead signs, and two enhanced crosswalks--does not go far enough.
"We're really tired of the speed going through our street," Anne Gadd, a Brook Glen Drive resident, said to the council. "Please do something."
The planning and engineering firm that the city hired to do the study plans to deal with the neighbors' concerns not addressed in the consensus plan in a future "neighborhood traffic management" plan, said Paula Reeve, the senior analyst for the city who works on the project.
A study of citations given out by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office in the Prides Crossing neighborhood during a one month period from mid-September to mid-October shows that the majority, 71 out of 101, were given to residents of Prides Crossing. The violations included not obeying speed limits and not stopping at stop signs, according to Capt. Jeff Miles at the Sheriff's Westside Substation in Saratoga.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
