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Published on 11/03/1999 All articles from this issue

Speed bumps may come to Los Altos streets

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue

Special to the Town Crier

The city of Los Altos continues battling traffic issues and has recently added a new option for traffic calming: engineering possibilities such as speed bumps, street trees, narrowing streets or intersections.

At its Oct. 12 meeting, the Los Altos City Council voted a process that requires a 60 percent approval of all affected property owners and 100 percent approval of all property owners adjacent to an engineering traffic-calming solution.

The council also agreed to pay 50 percent of installing or removing permanent traffic-calming devices, with city funds to come from the city's capital improvement reserve fund.

A speed bump costs about $2,000.

"We may have more requests than we have money for," said Councilman John Moss. "We should give priority to who has the biggest (traffic) problem and serve them first."

The process and funding for traffic-calming measures such as speed bumps come from the Neighborhood Traffic Management Program, a 47-page document developed by the city's Neighborhood Traffic Advisory Task Force.

The city council appointed the task force two years ago in response to resident concern about increased traffic in town.

As a result of task force efforts, two motorcycle traffic officers, who are funded by a grant, began Jan. 1. Tickets are up, speeds are down, and residents are pleased with the results.

Now the city has a process for neighborhoods wanting to move beyond enforcement for traffic calming.Councilwoman Kris Casto spoke in favor of using trees to narrow a street as a way of slowing traffic. The trees "add to the quality of the street," she said.

Resident Barb Loebner spoke in favor of the city funding the engineering traffic-calming options. "To me it's traffic enforcement. If the city funds traffic officers, it should do engineering, too," she said. Loebner serves on the traffic task force.

"The city should encourage general funding for all traffic calming," she said.

"This is a beginning plan," said Councilman King Lear. He spearheaded the formation of the traffic task force and has worked with it since it began.

Before considering speed bumps or narrowing a street, "The first thing we try is enforcement," said Bruce Bane, director of public works. "If enforcement doesn't work, then this is a process of neighborhood involvement" to move to engineering options.

Many neighboring cities, including Palo Alto, Mountain View and San Jose, have successfully used engineering options for calming traffic.

In downtown Mountain View along Castro Street, trees growing between the street and sidewalk narrow the street and encourage slow traffic.