New stop signs to be installed on Cervantes Road, near Ormondale School in Portola Valley New stop signs to be installed on Cervantes Road, near Ormondale School in Portola Valley (December 03, 2003)

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

Traffic engineers insist that stop signs are meant to direct traffic, not control speed. But a group of about 70 Portola Valley residents and school personnel upset about speeders -- some doing 50 mph near Ormondale Elementary School -- petitioned the Town Council to add stop signs to discourage speeding and encourage kids to walk or bike to school.

As a result, the council on November 12 approved two of the three stop signs requested by the town's traffic committee for the quarter-mile stretch of Cervantes Road between its two intersections with Shawnee Pass.

"The bottom line is: Anything we can do to slow traffic down I really would support," said Ormondale Principal Eva Gal to the council before a crowd of about 25.

"I have witnessed cars turning left onto Shawnee Pass from Cervantes ... come close many times to hitting cars, children, dogs," said Karen Lucian of Westridge Drive in a letter to the traffic committee.

There were objections to the committee's plan. A few residents called it "overkill," saying that drivers won't stop and won't slow down, that the volume of pedestrian traffic does not warrant such action, and that the roads are "too dangerous" anyway for kids to be walking along to school.

The council voted 4 to 1 to approve two stop signs at the Shawnee Pass intersection farthest from Westridge Drive, which would interrupt the opportunity to pick up speed on Cervantes.

Councilman Kirke Comstock voted against the measure, preferring the committee's plan that would have added another sign on Cervantes at Shawnee Pass closest to Westridge Drive for westbound traffic. But Mr. Comstock's colleagues seemed persuaded by Public Works Director Howard Young's comment that traffic-calming measures already installed relieve the need for another stop sign.

Westbound traffic on Cervantes turning left onto Shawnee Pass must now negotiate a set of plastic stanchions to safely make the turn, slowing traffic down to 1 or 2 mph, said traffic committee co-chair Chris Buja.

The council also approved a new crosswalk on Shawnee Pass at this intersection.

The traffic committee will report back to the council three months after the new signs go in.
Exercising the kids

In his presentation, Mr. Buja cited studies on childhood obesity by the Centers for Disease Control recommending that children walk to and from school if they live within a mile of the school.

The committee's presentation also noted the need to break the "vicious cycle" created by drivers' bad behavior that adds to the danger of kids' walking and biking to school, which can then lead to more parents driving their kids to school and possibly higher levels of danger for children not in cars.

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