Council applying for safe routes to school grant for traffic calming
The Monte Sereno Council agrees to share the costs
Winchester is the focus
By Nathan R. Huff
With the 11th hour upon them, the council voted unanimously on Nov. 6, to apply for a Safe Routes to School Grants to develop and implement traffic calming on Winchester Boulevard near Daves Avenue School.
After the item was bumped off the council's agenda several times due to a reported lack of space, the council finally took up the grant issue three days before the state application was due.
School officials, parents and Monte Sereno council members and council candidates have been pressuring Los Gatos to take action on the grant application since July.
If Los Gatos is successful, the town could receive as much as $280,000 to identify traffic-calming and speed-reduction measures and construct the necessary improvements. The town has pledged to work closely with Monte Sereno, which has, in turn, promised to provide half of any matching funds required through the grant request.
Council members, agreeing with local residents and school officials on the severity of the situation, also promised to pursue the study even if the grant is not obtained.
"Even if we don't get the grant, this is something we're committed to following through on," Councilwoman Linda Lubeck said. If the grant request is rejected, Monte Sereno would be willing to split the cost of the study and construction of improvements, according to Monte Sereno Vice Mayor Barbara Nesbet.
"If, when January comes we get the funds and move forward and get reimbursed for $280,000 from the government, that is a great thing," Nesbet said. "If we don't, we share the cost between the two communities and that is a great thing." Town staff estimates that the study and design could be completed by the end of the current school year, with construction of any improvements commencing next summer.
Numerous parents, several of whom have recently formed community safety coalitions, presented the council with lists of facts and figures regarding the situation at Daves Avenue and Winchester Boulevard.
In Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department surveys of the area, police found the average speed through the 25 mph zone was 34 mph. The surveys, taken on days in January, March and April, showed close to 7,000 cars going through the intersection between 1 and 6 p.m., with speeds as high as 67 mph.
The town's grant application states that, of the 568 students at Daves Avenue School, only 69 students walk or bike to school. Even though 80 percent of students live within two miles of the school, 88 percent of them are driven to school by their parents.
Among the proposed solutions--aimed at both slowing traffic and increasing the number of children who bike or walk to school--are narrowing the boulevard, raising crosswalks, installing roundabouts, medians or signals, and widening sidewalks. The grant application has been calculated according to the most expensive potential solution, which is the installation of a traffic signal.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
