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City wants to speed up efforts to slow traffic
Yeager starts work on finding a more neighborhood-oriented approach
By Kate Carter
It could have been a community meeting in Willow Glen, but it wasn't.
The voices at a study session on traffic calming last week expressed strong desires to slow cars down and keep them out of residential areas as fast and as efficiently as possible. But the loudest voices at the April 17 city hall meeting were those of the mayor and the city council members, not members of the public.
"I know how excited everyone is with the prospect of seeing things getting done on their streets," said Councilman Ken Yeager, who is also vice chairman of the city's new traffic-calming advisory committee. "We've got to do all we can to meet their expectations."
Wayne Tanda, director of the department of streets and traffic who is working with the city's traffic committee, outlined how they are responding to traffic concerns throughout the city. The city policy, approved by the city council nine months ago, puts traffic-mitigation measures into three categories of increasing severity.
The policy also provides a framework for involving all members of communities affected by traffic problems, to determine the problem and eventually agree upon and implement a solution. The city will also be measure a project's success by judging how well it stays on time and budget, how it affects traffic and how it is received by the nearby community.
Tanda provided a list of options for speeding up the process beyond that which is already happening, but he cautioned that moving too quickly could reduce community involvement and consensus on the solutions.
He also mentioned several new features the department hoped to be able to put in around the city, including crosswalk in-road lights, or uplights, and pedestrian countdown signals.
"The toolbox will be constantly expanding," he said.
The toolbox analogy was a common theme that others adopted throughout the evening. Nearly everyone, it seems, agrees that the city must develop more creative, streamlined solutions for what many residents see as one of their biggest concerns.
The city council was profuse in its gratitude to Tanda and his staff for working diligently to construct a new traffic-calming policy and to try it out within neighborhoods. They said they want to see more of the same.
District 3 (downtown) Councilwoman Cindy Chavez was the first to suggest that there be a single staff person whose sole job is to make sure that traffic-calming solutions are implemented. Other council members agreed that a dedicated person could improve the process. Tanda said such a position doesn't now exist, although traffic-calming occupies "80 to 95 percent" of his senior engineers' time.
Chavez and others also wanted to be sure that nonvehicular traffic needs were also a part of traffic-calming solutions. Tanda said the department is already in the process of creating a position for a "pedestrian czar."
District 2 (South San Jose) Councilman Forrest Williams had several different proposals that included starting traffic solutions before consensus is achieved and focusing on education, teaching children to encourage parents to drive more slowly.
Traffic near schools was a big concern for several of the council members, as well as members of the public.
The handful of the community members on hand expressed real interest in being part of the city's traffic-calming solutions. They wanted the city to listen to their ideas for their neighborhoods and give them direction about how to best work within the policy guidelines. Peter Constant said he and his Lynhaven Neighborhood Association would like a kit that would explain the policy, have a list of what solutions are available to them and guide them through the traffic-calming process.
Tanda said the department projects it will use about half its $1.8 million budget over this fiscal year, leaving close to $900,000 as carryover. But, he said, the department has spent the year mostly developing the new traffic-calming policy. He promised that next year it will need its entire budget "and more" as it begins to implement the new measures.
The policy consists of three tiers of traffic-calming solutions to respond to neighborhood problems. A problem must progress through the different levels to determine how extensive the solution must be.
A base solution such as new speed limit signs, a radar trailer or photo radar could take two to four weeks to determine and another one to three weeks to implement, Tanda said. Higher lever solutions such as speed bumps or cul-de-sacs, could take up to 78 weeks to agree upon and 52 weeks to implement.
Tanda said the reason for the wait is that it takes time for neighborhoods to discuss the situation and come to some consensus about how to resolve it--an important element of the city's policy. Some of the time lag also comes from the department's project backlog and the time it takes to complete large road changes and constructions, he added.
Councilman Yeager's office has been holding a number of meetings throughout District 6, including Willow Glen, to begin the traffic-calming process in its residential neighborhoods. Staff from his and other city offices met in February with residents of Glen Una Avenue and again in March with those on Malone Road to address problems of speeding and cut-through traffic.
Yeager aide Denelle Fedor said residents on Malone, in particular, can be "harassed" as they back out of or turn into their driveways by other drivers who don't want to wait. She also said neighbors don't want their children to play in the front yards or to cross the street because of the traffic.
Short-term solutions, such as crosswalks, increased law enforcement and photo-radar signage have been discussed, Fedor said, although nothing has yet been decided upon. She said Yeager's staff sends a follow-up letter and stays in touch with a neighborhood "captain" after the initial meeting, pursuing both short- and long-term solutions. Future meetings will be scheduled as they become necessary, she said.
At the traffic-calming study session, Yeager said he wanted to see those follow-up meetings come sooner after the initial meeting.
Deputy City Manager Jim Holgersson said Yeager's office is taking a "different twist" with traffic calming in the neighborhoods, "defining issues from a broader perspective," that could serve as a model for other city council offices.
Working with the neighborhoods is working, Fedor said.
"It's up to the residents to come together," she said. You want to drive in a way that is respectful of the people that live here. Every street is a neighborhood street."
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
