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Published on 10/28/1996 All articles from this issue

Don't fret over yellow tape - Los Altos crews counting traffic

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

Residents who noticed a black extension-like cord taped across their street need not worry about a traffic light going up in their front yard.

The city is just doing its annual traffic count, said Bruce Bane, Los Altos Public Works Director.

"You watch for trends," he said, "to see if traffic is increasing, decreasing, if there is a sudden jump from last year."

One change that may affect Los Altos is the increase of drivers in the county, 6,000 more than there were a year ago because of new jobs in the area, said Dave Donahue, traffic engineer.

He added that Los Altos doesn't generate much traffic because it is a bedroom community, but traffic patterns around it and through it do change.

Residents regularly mention traffic as one of their top concerns. Many may think that all 6,000 of those new drivers have found their street.

One traffic count is just a snapshot in time, Bane said. The information becomes useful when it is compared to previous years. The traffic history of Grant Road, for instance, showed that there was an increase after completion of Highway 85. As a result a traffic light did go up.

A traffic growth of 2 to 3 percent per year is not uncommon in the county, Bane said, but Los Altos is traditionally a little below that norm.

Usually the city "banks" the information and has it at hand when people call, Donahue said.

"We have people who call and say, 'my traffic has doubled in three years.'" With the traffic count, "I have the history. That opens a dialogue and also corrects some misconceptions."

The city owns 10 counters and annually rotates them around the city to 40 locations.

The count is usually done in the spring or fall, when traffic is considered "normal," Bane said. Summer vacations and winter storms vary the count.

Most of the counts are for 24 hours on a week day.

Usually counts are taken at places where people enter and leave the city, Bane said, such as San Antonio Road, Main Street, El Monte Avenue, Fremont Avenue and Grant Road.

The city counts city streets only. No count is taken on El Camino Real, a state highway, or on Foothill Expressway, a county road.

The city also takes counts "in areas where we've gotten complaints," Donahue said.

"Traffic volume is like inflation: hard to predict and it varies from year to year," he said.