Willow Glen Resident
News
Malone Road traffic still too fast along one section of street
By Mayra Flores De Marcotte
While speeders on Lincoln Avenue get caught regularly by speed traps in front of the Willows Senior Center, residents on Malone Road wonder why the same efforts aren't being made in their area, which they consider part of a school zone.
"Our street is a school zone with three schools using it, and neither the city nor the police do anything about it," said Malone Road resident DeAnn Page.
Page, her husband, Matthew, and several other residents of Malone Road between Newport and Cottle avenues have been concerned about the speeding. Their Malone Road neighbors between Lincoln and Newport avenues had similar problems, but their issue had a solution.
During the fall of 2005, these residents met with San Jose Department of Transportation division manager Laura Wells. The neighbors asked Wells if the city could remove the parking restriction signs from their portion of Malone and allow people to park on both sides of the street. The residents said this would be a "natural traffic- calming" measure, because the road would become narrow. The department agreed.
Councilman Ken Yeager's office met with the community in May to discuss the outcome and to talk to the residents on Malone Road between Newport and Cottle about their speeding issue.
The results were positive, Wells said.
"We have been told that it has brought speeds down in that stretch," she said.
The average speed dropped from 23.5 mph to 22, still well under the 25-mph speed limit in the area.
Because the removal of the restrictions was so successful, Wells and District 6 council aide Tony Filice suggested to the residents on the Newport and Cottle avenues stretch of Malone Road they do the same on their section of the street.
But residents don't believe this solution will work.
"The portion of Malone Road between Lincoln and Newport avenues is narrower than ours," Page said. "The removal of the parking restrictions has slowed people down, but our section of Malone is wider, and the parking-restriction removal would not help anything."
The neighbors are so adamant about not having the parking restrictions lifted that they circulated and signed a petition opposing this plan and submitted it to Wells.
The residents' solutions to the speeding problem include speed bumps, flashing school zone lights and a median down the street.
"We are receptive to anything besides nothing," Page said, "but they had nothing to offer us besides taking our signs away."
Wells said since traffic studies conducted on that section of Malone Road show the average speed below the 25 mph limit, the street does not qualify for these types of traffic calming measures.
"We are putting in some additional signage," Wells said. "We are putting in advanced school zone signage and relocating a speed limit sign because it is slightly blocked by a tree."
The city did come out the week of June 26 and put in a yellow sign that cautions drivers there are pedestrians ahead, but residents aren't satisfied.
"We want that open community feel with the trees and open front yards," Page said, "but because we have small children, we are breaking down and putting up a fence because of the speeders."
She and residents Kim and Bob Daly said they didn't think the pedestrian sign would make a difference.
"It's an awesome street and is so quiet and peaceful at night," Page said. "Everyone is fixing their homes and starting families. It's just unfortunate that these few people that speed through ruin it."
