By Khalida Sarwari
One issue that’s sure to come up at the Saratoga City Council’s retreat later this month is traffic, specifically at the intersection of Cox Avenue, Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road and Wardell Road.
John Cherbone, the city’s public works director, brought up the topic at the Dec. 17 council meeting after Councilman Rishi Kumar suggested earlier in December that the council consider looking into improvements at that intersection. Cherbone discussed assessments previously conducted by the city’s traffic safety commission and provided two options that the city could proceed with.
The crux of the problem is that the traffic light at that intersection has unprotected left turns, which means that left turns onto Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road must yield to through traffic when the traffic light is green. This sometimes results in drivers traveling from Cox Avenue or Wardell Road who make a left turn and do not use their blinkers to cause confusion for oncoming drivers.
Since 2009, there have been 13 collisions at that intersection, and five of these incidents were yield-related while four were caused by speeding. The remaining cases were DUIs or other offenses, according to Cherbone.
To help reduce the confusion caused by drivers not using their blinkers through this unprotected intersection, Cherbone said he and his staff have narrowed the available options to two. At a cost of about $20,000, the first option would be to implement a split phasing, thereby effectively slowing the flow of traffic on Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road when the pedestrian crossing is activated. This option would allow pedestrians to have a protected crossing, since they no longer would go with the left turns from Cox.
The second option, estimated to cost a little more at $73,000, would be to restripe the east-west approach to provide dedicated left-turn lanes on each approach, and make other changes that improve the flow of traffic but would likely preclude on-street parking on Wardell until Yolo Drive.
“I think it could definitely alleviate that section, make it a little bit safer,” said Kumar. “And from the standpoint of the flow of traffic, I think there will be a little bit of an impact but the second option might be an approach to alleviate that concern a little bit.”
Ultimately, Councilman Manny Cappello recommended postponing making a decision on the matter until the council retreat, saying that it needs further contemplation. He opined also that the traffic safety commission should weigh in on the matter.
“I think we could benefit from a more careful review and determination of what the problems are there and address them all at the same time through the normal channels,” Cappello said. “I think this should go through traffic safety. They’re the experts. I mean we appoint them to do this work and to look at these things in greater detail than we can ever do here on the dais and so from that standpoint I think it lends itself to a more favorable approach and also a more favorable solution as well.”
A motion by Mayor Howard Miller to continue the matter to January so that the council could discuss it further at the retreat was approved by unanimous consent.
The council’s annual retreat takes place Jan. 23 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Saratoga Foothill Club, 20399 Park Place, Saratoga.
Link: Traffic issues to top agenda at annual city council retreat
