City takes on a traffic study that will become benchmark
Focus is on Prides Crossing neighborhood
By Steve Enders
The city of Saratoga is about to embark on a landmark mission that will, eventually, find a solution to curb the number of "cut through" and reckless drivers and speeders that whiz through the neighborhood known as Prides Crossing.
The Prides Crossing area is a large one, comprising the streets between Prospect Road, Highway 85, Cox Avenue and the Calabazas Creek to the west.
When the entire study is done, the city may install traffic-calming devices to slow drivers down and with the intent to keep other drivers from using the roads through those once-quiet neighborhoods.
When the surveys are complete and the traffic has finally calmed down, the city will also have a benchmark to work from whenever other traffic studies are deemed necessary around the city.
The study will culminate with a report mandated in the Saratoga general plan under the traffic circulation element, according to Community Development Director James Walgren. The last time the circulation element was updated was 1983, and much in Saratoga has changed since then.
When it's updated this time, the city's roads will all be re-classified and with the results of the Prides Crossing study, the city's Public Safety Commission will have a published document stating how traffic problems should be handled.
Tops on the Prides Crossing complaint list is Miller Avenue which, according to Paula Reeve, city administrative analyst, has been used as a major "cut through" route ever since 1994 when Highway 85 was built. The road, drivers have figured out, is one of the more direct routes between Cox Avenue and Prospect Road, where it continues into Cupertino.
Another sore spot with residents, according to the city, is the area around Christa McAuliffe Elementary School, located on Titus Avenue, which also links Prospect and Cox.
Finally, the study will focus on Brookglen Drive, where the city says neighbors have complained of reckless drivers using the road as another connector.
According to Erman Dorsey, an assistant engineer with the city, a traffic circle was installed during the 1970s at the intersection of Titus Avenue and Brookview Drive. The traffic-calming effort didn't quite work as planned, he said.
"After six months, the residents petitioned the city to remove it because teenagers would hot-rod around the circle," Dorsey said. Because there is a school close by, the city took it out.
Now, other traffic-calming devices--speed bumps--lie in the street on Baylor Avenue. What began just as one bump turned into two because drivers were speeding to it, and again once they got over it.
The Prides Crossing study, the city hopes, will eliminate these kinds of project mixups. Also, the city must be careful when installing traffic-calming devices, so they don't slow emergency vehicles trying to get through the neighborhood.
Saratoga's City Council, at its April 7 meeting selected CCS Planning and Engineering to perform the various initial tasks of completing the survey. After a meeting April 16 with city officials, CCS engineers were scheduled to begin the tedious task of looking for and counting the drivers who are doing as the neighbors allege.
One way in which they'll count the cars using the roads, will be to "count" license plates, a technique whereby one engineer sits on one end of a road, and another sits on the other end. Armed with two-way radios, the two can keep track of the cars that pass from end to end.
Additionally, the engineers will contact schools, emergency services and residents in search of all the information they need to assess the use and needs of the roads and residents.
According to a report to the city from CCS, getting the public involved from the beginning is a top priority.
Reeve said that the city is planning on sending notices to residents in the neighborhood that the survey is taking place, and will hold various meetings to get feedback on the process.
"We've got to get the neighborhood together," Reeve said. "It's really important to get their buy-in right from the beginning."
CCS and the city are hoping to begin the project as soon as possible and get all the necessary traffic counts finished by the end of the school year, when much of the traffic generated from parents is gone from the area.
Saratoga, California Since 1975
