Willow Glen Resident
News
More police key to local traffic woes, residents say
By Mayra Flores De Marcotte
The last of 10 community meetings held throughout San Jose to discuss traffic-calming issues closed with District 6 residents voicing the bottom line--the need for more police presence.
"The key is enforcement," said Willow Glen resident Bill Cardoza.
The city recently approved the installation of speed lumps on Cardoza's street, Blewett Avenue, after a speeding truck drove into two front yards and crashed into a nearby palm tree.
"We need more police officers," he said.
Cardoza wasn't the only one among the crowd of more than 50 residents to say that more enforcement is key in resolving traffic problems on neighborhood streets.
"The solution is not in traffic-calming devices," said one Rose Garden resident. "It lies in changing the behavior of the citizens themselves."
Many residents said that without traffic enforcement, residents speed and drive recklessly because they know they won't get a ticket.
"If every police officer would write one or even two more tickets every day, then they would look a little more threatening," said David Dearborn, who lives off of Minnesota Avenue.
Another resident off Bird Avenue said the existing system is fine; it just needs to be used.
"By writing tickets, it leads to a safe street which in turn leads to a safer culture," said Collin McCarthy.
District 6 Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio facilitated the Nov. 29 meeting at the Willow Glen Middle School cafeteria as part of a series of traffic meetings held in each of the city's 10 council districts to gather input about traffic issues in various
neighborhoods. Oliverio organized the meetings after a teen lost control of his car in South San Jose over the summer, killing himself, his passenger and two pedestrians.
"There have been too many fatalities and near misses," Oliverio said. "The idea here is to find out how to make sure this doesn't happen again."
The city's traffic-calming policy was revised in 2001 with the help of a traffic-calming committee and feedback from community meetings. The policy is now being revised once again to create consistent traffic-calming practices throughout San Jose, said Jim Helmer, director of the Department of Transportation.
The information gathered at the 10 community meetings will be used when the Department of Transportation and the San Jose Police Department present recommendations to the city council by next March regarding a citywide policy, Oliverio said.
According to police Lt. Jeff Smith, between 900 and 1,000 complaints are received each year pertaining to speeding, stop signs and traffic light issues. Smith said due to current procedure and manpower issues, it takes three to four months to address a traffic complaint. The traffic enforcement unit has only 47 members.
"We're here to garner feedback because a lot of the time, if you change the makeup of one street, you cause another problem at another street," Smith said.
According to residents, however, there is a simpler solution to the shortage of police officers--bring back the Neighborhood Automated Speed Compliance Program.
NASCOP is a program that places a photo radar machine on neighborhood streets to detect speeders.
This method of speed enforcement is an inexpensive and friendly way to let people know what their speed is, residents said.
"There are two types of speeders," said Willow Glen resident Wendy Punches, "egregious ones and those that just aren't paying attention."
The Malone Road resident said the egregious ones are those who are going 50 to 60 mph on residential streets. The ones that aren't paying attention are going 30 to 40 mph.
Coolige Avenue resident Robert Browne agreed with Punches.
"Are we not going to be happy until we have speed humps on every street and stop signs at every corner?" he asked. "There's nothing wrong with the law as it is, we just have to start using it. We need to start ticketing those egregious speeders."
Resident feedback will be used in the new policy.
