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Bella Vista residents are still seeking permanent solution By Jeff Kearns
Six months after neighbors brought concerns to the Town Council about Los Gatos High School traffic cutting through their neighborhood, overall speed through the areas east of the school is down, but a permanent solution is proving hard to nail down.
When school started in the fall, administrators leaned on students to slow down on the streets around the school, and midway through the second semester, neighbors say speeds are down. An informal traffic study shows speeds dropping from 29 to 21 miles per hour.
The neighbors complained of students using Bella Vista Avenue as a shortcut around frequent morning backups on Los Gatos Boulevard. They recounted horror stories of speeding cars and near-misses. Police, however, don't have any record of anything more than a handful of fender-benders on those streets.
Town officials started last fall by putting a stop sign at the intersection of Bella Vista and Caldwell avenues, and at a Feb. 24 meeting, Public Works Director Scott Baker said the town would stripe a one-way section of New York Avenue that leads downhill toward the school to keep cars and pedestrians apart. Police also have increased traffic enforcement patrols on the street.
LGHS student Joel Key said the stripes would help because "a lot of high school kids run and do repeats on that hill, and they scatter when a car comes."
The Bella Vista Avenue Traffic Calming Committee, made up of neighbors, LGHS students, Vice-Principal Doug Ramezane, and town officials, has met several times since it was formed in August, but hasn't come up with any major proposals for the area.
Blocking off or changing streets to one-way are generally messy solutions that accomplish little more than moving a problem somewhere else--and they create the biggest hassle for the residents who asked for them, officials say.
And what's attractive for some neighbors almost always creates problems for other residents. "We all agree that there's a problem, but that's about it," said Caldwell Avenue resident Jim Waite.
Some neighbors want to see the New York Avenue access to the school closed, but that solution may be a long shot at best because it would dump all school traffic onto E. Main Street and bring it through the campus.
The ad-hoc committee is scheduled to meet again in April, and should have a formal proposal ready for councilmembers later this year.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
