Residents complain of knotty traffic problems Residents complain of knotty traffic problems (January 28, 2004)

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

Drivers speeding through the narrow streets of a University Heights neighborhood may be changing their habits soon if the California Highway Patrol makes good on a promise to make frequent visits to the area, including patrols that span several consecutive days.

Fed up with cut-through traffic and anticipating more as a yearlong construction project on nearby Sand Hill Road gets under way, about 120 residents -- some with small children -- showed up at La Entrada School January 21 to meet with San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon.

The residents live in an unincorporated area near Santa Cruz Avenue and Palo Alto Way, where Atefeh Bijan was stuck and killed by a car January 9 while she was in a crosswalk.

Mr. Gordon took comments, fielded questions and talked about specific proposals to address the neighborhood's traffic woes in a time of very tight budgets. Also present to provide perspectives during the two-hour meeting were county public works director Neil Cullen and California Highway Patrol public affairs officer Gaylord Gee.

"They're just flying down Palo Alto Way past me. It's just shocking," said a resident of a street that sees about 1,000 cars a day, but is little more than a two-way alley intersecting with Santa Cruz Avenue. Mr. Cullen's office provided the traffic figures.

The crisscrossing network of hilly byways has no street lights, no sidewalks and a growing presence of children, residents said, many of whom already ride their bikes through the neighborhood and across Santa Cruz Avenue to La Entrada School.

"I've never seen anybody either arrested or stopped for going through those [stop] signs [on Palo Alto Way] and I've lived here for 42 years," said Paul Davis, a resident of Leland Avenue.

"There are tradeoffs on whatever we propose to do in this neighborhood," Mr. Gordon said in summary.

Closing streets, while inexpensive, shifts traffic to other residential streets and requires a public hearing and action by the Board of Supervisors, Mr. Cullen said. Speed humps take about 18 months plus a fee. The quickest approach is enforcing the existing restrictions, he said, which is where the situation was left, at least for the next 45 days.

Meanwhile, the public works department will work up an initial proposal for the board, Mr. Gordon said, adding that he intends to keep the bureaucracy moving on this issue while he uses the time to gather more data.

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