Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Elmer Szanto stands in the middle of Miller Avenue. He claims motorists use the street as a half-mile speedway.

Miller Avenue residents finally get some respect from the city

Neighbors waited for six years

By Sarah Lombardo

The residents of Miller Avenue in Saratoga will have to wait almost three months for a meeting with the City Council about a possible traffic study on their street. Not bad, considering some residents have been struggling to get the city's attention on that topic for some six years.

"I'm more optimistic now than I've ever been," Miller Avenue resident Elmer Szanto said.

Szanto is a member of the Miller Avenue Traffic Committee, a group of residents concerned about what they perceive as unsafe and unnecessary traffic on their street. Commuters, they claim, use the residential street as a shortcut between Cox Avenue and Prospect Road. The sheer number of cars and the speeds they travel are a problem, they said.

It's a conclusion, however, that the city and even the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department has disagreed with and dismissed-- until now.

After listening to residents at a public hearing June 10, the City Council agreed to consider the possibility of conducting a traffic study on the street to assess the traffic problems and come up with some solutions at an Aug. 12 council meeting. Interim City Manager Larry Perlin suggested that councilmembers and residents look at a planned study of traffic on Baylor Avenue. Perlin said the streets are similar enough that some techniques proposed for slowing traffic on Baylor Avenue could be applicable to the problem residents perceive on Miller.

It's a step in the right direction, Szanto said, but the June meeting proved valuable for more than just the agreement to meet again.

"The session was a lot of venting," Szanto said. "Same old stuff, but for the first time [residents] have been able to express their frustrations directly to the council."

In the past, Miller Avenue residents spoke with the Public Safety Commission, but the commission and Sheriff's Capt. Bob Wilson have said there is no traffic problem on that street by current traffic standards.

Councilman Jim Shaw disagreed. Shaw said it doesn't matter how the traffic on Miller rates compared with other streets.

"That's irrelevant to the residents on Miller," he said.

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