The mayor's budget has allocated $180,000 to improve safety on Lincoln Avenue, and the signs are now being purchased, said San Jose Department of Transportation Division Manager Laura Wells.

City funds will cover the signs' implementation at at least three crosswalks in a trial program beginning this spring, she said.

The new crosswalk signs will be identical to the existing pedestrian signs now in place, with one major enhancement: these new signs will flash.

When pedestrians want to enter the crosswalk, they will push a button and the crosswalk on the sign will light up, alerting motorists at a distance, said Wells. Lincoln Avenue will be the first place in San Jose where these signs are installed, Wells said.

"I think they'll be very effective," she added.

Former Willow Glen resident John Hutchinson said he remembers when the city installed the stationary pedestrian signs in the middle of the street in August 2002.

"When they put them in, they worked," said Hutchinson. And although he thought they looked "obnoxious" in the middle of the street, they did remind motorists to yield to pedestrians. He is also concerned that the crosswalk signs, which will be placed on the side of the street, may not be as visible as the current signs.

But other Willow Glen residents, Julie Turner and Genna Diehl, said the existing signs—in the middle of the street and on the side—are not enough and that the new flashing signs will be an improvement.

"Anything will be better than what we have now," said Turner, as she and Diehl pushed their strollers down Lincoln Avenue.

Improving pedestrian safety in Willow Glen became a goal two years ago when the Lincoln Avenue Strategic Plan study was done, said Willow Glen Neighborhood Association board member Jim Spence.

With that goal in mind, representatives from neighborhood and business associations met with city transportation advisers to review all possible options.

Crosswalk uplights—pedestrians push a button before entering the crosswalk and lights flash in the road—were favored originally, Spence said.

But after the transportation department tried an uplight crosswalk in Almaden at McAbee Road, the continual maintenance costs proved prohibitive, Spence said. He added that San Jose transportation advisers said cities like Berkeley and Oakland that had installed uplights found the devices needed to be fixed frequently and only changed drivers' habits for less than a year; then the drivers began ignoring them.

The expense of fixing a crosswalk with uplights would reduce the number of crosswalks with uplights that Lincoln Avenue could have, Spence said.

"It became more of an expense than a benefit," he said.

The only other option that was available was the flashing crosswalk signs, which have also been implemented in Santa Rosa.

"We're all excited to try and get it going, because there are a lot of people out and about," he said.

Willow Glen Neighborhood Association President Helen Solinski agreed that additional pedestrian-safety measures on Lincoln Avenue should be taken, but said the flashing crosswalk signs were not as aesthetically pleasing as uplights.

"We want to make sure that Lincoln Avenue doesn't look like a train crossing," she said.