Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Cars line up to pick up students at Redwood Middle School. The city of Saratoga hopes to deal with congestion around schools by encouraging transportation alternatives, such as busing and carpooling.
Plan will try to convince local drivers to leave cars at home
By Rebecca Ray
As a coalition of community organizations gears up to tackle traffic congestion near Saratoga schools, apparently one of their prime challenges will be to convince parents to adopt transportation alternatives.
According to a survey conducted last summer, 64 percent of the 1,361 Saratoga Union School District parents who responded said they would use buses that had convenient stops near their homes. The survey was conducted by Altrans, a private, grant-funded company that is part of the coalition studying Saratoga's traffic problems and developing solutions, which include mass transit and carpooling.
But when one Redwood Middle School parent was asked if she'd consider having her daughter ride the bus, she said no, because her daughter would either miss the bus every day or forget something at home.
Another Redwood parent, Andrea Chiang, said she wasn't interested in busing or carpooling, because she also has to pick up her daughter, who attends a private school in Sunnyvale. Redwood parent Mary Burne said she didn't carpool because no other students live nearby.
Another parent, Melinda Golden, who has two sixth-graders at Redwood, said she didn't carpool because she didn't want to share in someone else's responsibility. Also, between her work and her children's activities, Golden said that her family's schedule was "too wacky."
But Golden said she would consider busing because of the convenience. She also feels guilty about the number of trips she makes and her "contribution to the parking lot nightmare," she said.
Another Redwood parent said she has carpooled for seven years, because it is more convenient, the congestion in Saratoga is outrageous and "it doesn't hurt a bit."
The Saratoga schools transportation task force--a subcommittee of the public safety commission--is moving closer toward reducing traffic congestion and increasing children's safety at Saratoga schools. The subcommittee--which includes city and school officials, and representatives from Altrans, Valley Transit Authority and the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office Westside Substation--was formed in fall 2000 to address residents' growing concerns about traffic near Saratoga schools.
Altrans President and task force member Stephen Blaylock applied for a $551,315 grant from the transportation fund for clean air, a regional funding source, on behalf of the city of Saratoga. The money distributed by the fund comes from the $4 surcharge paid by motorists when they register their vehicles. The grant is expected to be awarded in May 2001.
The grant money would go toward the Altrans trip-reduction program, which extends past the Saratoga city limits, even though Saratoga sponsors it. The program covers six colleges and 39 K-12 schools in the valley, including West Valley College and the 11 K-12 schools in Saratoga.
According to the grant application, the continuing program would expand clean air campaigns, provide trip planning services, provide on-site ride-share matching and encourage alternative modes of transportation, such as carpooling, mass transit, biking and walking. Altrans has created a website, CarpoolZip.com that serves as an exchange for prospective carpoolers
The Altrans program would also introduce a pilot busing program in the Saratoga Union School District during the 2001-2002 school year. The independent transportation engineering firm, R & D Transportation, is developing a cost-effective busing plan for the district.
Under the pilot busing program, two 84-passenger buses would serve the four elementary schools in the district and reduce 800 trips each day, according to the grant application.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
