Saratoga News

'Traffic calming' techniques to be tried on Baylor Avenue

By Sarah Lombardo

Baylor Avenue residents will be taking part in an experiment that could change the way traffic is handled in Saratoga in the future. By the end of this month, "traffic calming" techniques are scheduled to be implemented along the street, which residents said has become a high-speed shortcut for commuters since the opening of Highway 85 in 1994.

If the strategies are successful in slowing down cars on Baylor Avenue, a similar process could be used for dealing with traffic on other residential streets in the future.

Traffic-calming techniques can include anything that will cause cars to slow down, from a well-placed speed limit sign to a traffic circle. In Baylor Avenue's case, consultants from CCS Planning and Engineering, hired by the city, determined that increasing the visibility of traffic speed signs, creating median islands at Baylor intersections, installing stop signs at Villanova Road and Baylor and constructing a single mid-block "speed hump" along Baylor would do the trick.

The hump, according to CCS officials, was difficult to get approved by local law and fire officials. Steve Fitzsimons, a manager of the San Jose office of CCS, said there was some confusion about what the hump would actually do to traffic along the road and if it would impede the travel of safety vehicles. The firm conducted a field test, using a fire engine driving over a speed hump in a nearby city.

"The hump can be comfortably driven over at 20 mph and typically reduces the average speed down to 25 mph, which is appropriate for a residential area," he said. "If people want to drive faster on it, they can, but it is not comfortable."

Fitzsimons said that once fire officials saw the field test, they gave the hump the go-ahead.

Implementation of the techniques should only take a few days, Interim City Manager Larry Perlin said.

The project is estimated to cost about $7,000.

But, Perlin cautioned, it's the process that can be replicated if successful, not just the specific techniques being applied to Baylor.

"You can't look at one street with a cookie-cutter approach. Each street is unique and has its own problems," he said. "If Baylor is successful, what's encouraging is that the process works. We can deal with these issues in nontraditional ways."

The process for Baylor began almost two years ago, said Baylor Avenue resident Susan Hollis. Residents said they noticed traffic increasing on their street soon after Highway 85 opened. "We were really concerned, and [traffic] was getting faster and faster," she said.

She said that she and other parents stopped letting their children play in their front yards for fear of the cars speeding by.

Baylor Avenue residents and members of the Sunland Park Homeowners Association approached the Public Safety Commission. Hollis said Perlin brought up a technique for slowing cars down that had been used in other Bay Area cities, and he said he'd like to look into it for Baylor Avenue.

The study was conducted, and final approval for implementation was given by the City Council at last week's meeting.

CCS will continue to study Baylor Avenue for six months to determine if the techniques installed are slowing down traffic. The follow-up study will cost $1,000.

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