Upfront TRANSPORTATION
County embarks on long road to fix congested expressways Major changes planned for Page Mill Road, Foothill Expressway by Gennady Sheyner
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aced with thickening traffic jams throughout its expressway network, Santa Clara County officials are considering a range of long-term projects that would add driving lanes and under- or overpasses to segments of particularly busy roads, including Page Mill Road and Foothill Expressway. At the same time, local and regional transportation officials are backing away from a prior proposal to install traffic lights on the chronically congested interchange of Interstate 280 and Page Mill Road, where lines of stationary southbound cars routinely stretch past the off-ramp and onto the highway proper. The plan, which has been in the works since 2011 and which has the support of Caltrans (the state Department of Transportation), is now back in the slow lane after opposition from Los Altos Hills, where residents and council members vehemently criticized it in recent months. The proposed traffic signals will now be a part of a broader study of the
Page Mill corridor. The recent developments around the highway interchange underscore the steep political challenges transportation officials are facing as they look for ways to increase capacity and traffic flow on the county’s expressways, a system created in the 1960s that is used daily by about 55 percent of Santa Clara County residents, according to Dawn Cameron of the county’s Roads and Airports Department. The department is now working on updating Expressway Plan 2040, a document that will evaluate possible changes to expressways, including the widening of Page Mill from four lanes to six and grade-separating Foothill Expressway so that it dips under Arastradero Road. Both expressways are already facing heavy traffic, which is expected to get worse in the years to come. The Page Mill-Oregon expressway currently accommodates about 134,000 vehicle trips per day, making it the sixth busiest in the network. But unlike the
busiest expressways — Capital, Lawrence and San Tomas — it is a four-lane road (others have six or eight lanes), which further exacerbates the congestion. The four-lane Foothill Expressway has about 94,000 vehicle trips per day. Furthermore, both expressways include intersections with the worst possible traffic conditions, known as “level of service F.� This means cars are often forced to wait through several traffic-light cycles before they clear the intersection. The intersection of Foothill Expressway and Page Mill Road (which becomes Oregon Expressway east of El Camino Real) now experiences the third-highest level of delay in the entire expressway network during both the morning and evening commute periods, with an average of 118.9 seconds. “Traffic volumes are returning to the great pre-recession levels, leading to increasing traffic congestion throughout the expressway network,� Cameron told the
NOTICE OF A PUBLIC MEETING of the Palo Alto Planning & Transportation Commission Please be advised the Planning and Transportation Commission (P&TC) shall conduct a public meeting at 6:00 PM, Wednesday, July 30, 2014 in the Council Conference Room, Ground Floor, Civic Center, Palo Alto, California. Any interested persons may appear and be heard on these items. Staff reports for agendized items are available via the City’s main website at www.cityofpaloalto.org and also at the Planning Division Front Desk, 5th Floor, City Hall, after 2:00 PM on the Friday preceding the meeting date. Copies will be made available at the Development Center should City Hall be closed on the 9/80 Friday. Study Session 1. Planned Community (PC) Zoning Reform: Study Session on possible revisions to the Planned Community (PC) District Regulations. For more information contact Consuelo Hernandez at consuelo.hernandez@cityofpaloalto.org Public Hearing 2. Review of Draft Modifications to Build To Line Requirements in Palo Alto Municipal Code Chapter 18.16. For more information contact Amy French at amy.french@cityofpaloalto.org Questions. For any questions regarding the above items, please contact the Planning Department at (650) 329-2441. The files relating to these items are available for inspection weekdays between the hours of 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. This public meeting is televised live on Government Access Channel 26. ADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request an accommodation for this meeting or an alternative format for any related printed materials, please contact the City’s ADA Coordinator at 650.329.2550 (voice) or by e-mailing ada@ cityofpaloalto.org.
Hillary Gitelman, Director of Planning and Community Environment
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Lan Liu Bowling
Lan Liu Bowling
John Chung Keller Williams
presents
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813 Sutter Avenue Palo Alto
Lan@LanBowling.com
johnmc@kw.com
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