Ken Miller, who's resided on Willow Glen Way for 20 years, said speeding traffic has been a concern for as long as he's lived there, but lately he fears for his family's safety.

His wife, who doesn't drive, relies on her bicycle to get around, Miller said. The cars see her, but they don't stop.

Two weeks ago, his wife was crossing Bird Avenue at Willow Glen Way on her bicycle, going to Galarza Elementary School. It was about 2 p.m., and she had their two young girls in a bike trailer. Three cars failed to stop when she was in the middle of the crosswalk, Miller said. If she had not stopped in the street, she would have been hit.

With the bicycle and its trailer attachment, Miller's wife and daughters' vehicles were about 10 feet long and obviously visible to oncoming traffic, he said. This driving behavior goes beyond "impolite, it's dangerous."

When his wife, Querta, called the police, they suggested calling the school to ask for crossing guards.

"That's not good enough," Miller said. People slow down and stop when there is a police officer or a group of vigilant residents standing by the intersection closely monitoring traffic, but not during other times, he said.

Querta Miller said there are school-crossing signs posted in both directions on Bird Avenue, but for anyone driving southbound, the sign is often obscured by commercial vehicles and trees.

"At 35 to 45 mph, the corner effectively is blind," Ken Miller said, referring to the curve in the road near the school.

Department of Transportation Director Laura Wells said the intersection has been "looked at extensively " and the department is aware of the neighbors' desire to have an all-way stop, but she said "it's not warranted" because it does not meet all the criteria.

The criteria are based on several factors. While the intersection is near a school and the street has a curve, "the accident history has been very light," she said, adding that Willow Glen Way is not a high-volume traffic artery. "We don't want anyone to be hit, but we can't put up stop signs at every intersection."

Wells said a November 2001 study showed that about 4,000 cars traveled down Bird Avenue daily, while only 400 used Willow Glen Way.

She added that placing a stop sign where there is "little conflicting volume" would cause congestion and might even divert cars to other residential streets as drivers avoid the stop sign at Willow Glen Way followed by a second stop sign at Pine Avenue.

A stop sign was put at Pine and Bird avenues when the school traffic plan was redesigned to have students enter from Pine Avenue rather than Willow Glen Way.

Caroline Alemany, who lives on Willow Glen Way and has two children, said, "I can't believe we have a school with children crossing and we don't have a stop sign."

Alemany went to the city's traffic-calming webpage and contacted the department by email two to three months ago, but has not gotten a response.

She said it's not just school hours she is concerned about, it's any time, recalling a time last November when she walked across the street with a baby in a stroller and thought it was dangerous.

"I didn't even attempt it this time," she said, about the crossing on Bird Avenue, as she went almost a year later to vote at the polling booths at Galarza.

She adds it's not only children who use the crosswalk, but adults also. These pedestrians cross when going to the polls at Galarza and to use River Glen Park.

Wells said the department deals with around 50 traffic issues in District 6, and tries to respond to each complaint. She added that at that intersection traffic engineers have implemented red curbing, tree trimming, a "pork chop" island, school-crossing signs and a school radar display sign that is programmed to work during school drop-off and pickup hours.

"I applaud the efforts, but I want more," Miller said.

He cites the "huge influx of toddlers on our street" as one of his reasons for reviving the issue.

Alemany said that Bird Avenue at Willow Glen Way is a "natural place for a stop sign" because some people slow looking for a stop sign there.

Susan Kusters lives off Willow Glen Way on Guadalupe Avenue and said that of all the traffic-slowing solutions--stop signs, speed bumps, photo radar and vertical pedestrian markers like the ones on Lincoln Avenue--she thought a stop sign made the most sense.

Miller said it's not just pedestrian safety that's at risk; drivers on Willow Glen Way trying to turn onto Bird Avenue have to "squeal their tires" to safely avoid oncoming traffic, he said.

Miller has requested other traffic-calming techniques on Bird Avenue, including the meridian striping from Malone to Minnesota avenues, which the city completed.

Miller's concerns about safety go back to when his oldest child was small. Ten years ago, when his son attended Galarza, which is on Bird Avenue across the street from their home on Willow Glen Way, Miller drove his son because he didn't trust drivers to yield to children in crosswalks. He asked for a study at that time and provided his own photos of drivers tailgating at high speeds. The department of transportation held a hearing and voted "no" on putting a stop sign at that spot because not many children lived on the street.

A decade later, the demographics have changed and a new group of toddlers, including Miller's, have made residents anxious about finding a permanent solution. With the influx of new concerns, Wells said that the department can look at doing another stop-sign study.