Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
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City approves traffic calming approach for Canary Drive Staff's proposed three-pronged method comes after years of work By Jana Seshadri Many residents on and surrounding Canary Drive in Sunnyvale are pleased with the city's solution to their traffic problem. The Sunnyvale City Council unanimously approved the staff-recommended three-pronged traffic-calming method at its June 11 meeting, albeit with a few strings attached. The decision came almost three years after concerned residents first requested that the city look into possible solutions regarding speeding and cut-through traffic on Canary Drive between Inverness Avenue and Homestead Road. The implementation of traffic-calming measures was what they were looking for. The council has directed staff to return after a year with a report on the effectiveness of this method, upon Mayor Fred Fowler's suggestion. The Sunnyvale Department of Public Works' street and landscaping crews plan to construct a landscaped and irrigated traffic circle at the intersection of Canary Drive and Loch Lomond and a stamped concrete speed hump on the property lines of four residences on Canary Drive, as well as a 4-foot-by-20-foot median island. According to Dennis Ng, senior traffic engineer, the traffic circle and the island will cost $60,000, and the speed hump will cost $6,500. The $168,250, previously approved by city council and established at the time of the 2001–02 capital budget, remains unspent and will be used for this project. The remaining $101,750 will be returned to the gas tax fund, according to staff's report. However, the $3,000 for the estimated yearly maintenance and operation of the traffic circle will have to be added to the public works landscaping budget, said Jack Witthaus, transportation and traffic manager. Residents at the meeting said they are prepared to do whatever it takes to maintain the landscaping in the island, if the city wants them to. Mary Depew, a Canary Drive resident for the past six years, said that she and her husband moved to Sunnyvale from Minnesota and chose their present home after a lot of searching. "We thought it would be a good street to raise a family," Depew said. There are more than 20 children who live on that street, she said, and it is not safe for them to be out in their front yards because the traffic is too fast on the street. Canary Drive, a residential street, has a posted 25-mph speed limit. Speed surveys and volume counts on the street by city staff reveal that approximately 1,200 vehicles travel Canary Drive every day—200 more than the city's threshold for a residential street. The study also revealed that most vehicles on the street were traveling at 35 mph or faster. "The three elements together, we feel, are the best solution up to this point," said Stu Gans, who lives on Loch Lomond Court. Some residents disagreed with the staff's report. "I don't agree with this because this would set a precedent," said Werner Gans, a Sunnyvale resident for more than 40 years. "There will be a lot of these all over the city." "We're here to solve a problem," said Councilman Jack Walker after he moved to approve the motion. "And since it is in a residential neighborhood, it has to look nice." Witthaus cautioned council members that their approval or disapproval of the traffic-calming plan will indeed set a precedent for future traffic-calming studies in Sunnyvale and may increase the number of traffic-calming projects in the future. There may be a need to introduce an ongoing traffic-calming capital construction budget, he added. |
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