January 02, 2004

Back to the Table of Contents Page

Back to the Weekly Home Page

Classifieds

Publication Date: Friday, January 02, 2004

Stop!

It's been 30 years since the first traffic signal was installed in Pleasanton, at Black Avenue and Santa Rita Road, and traffic engineers have been adding signals ever since.

Today, with 93 traffic lights across the city - and more coming - motorists can count on seeing red as they drive on most major streets in Pleasanton, even late at night. Unlike cities that give motorists the green light if they maintain a posted speed, Pleasanton's lights change when a car in a cross street triggers an underground or overhead detector or a pedestrian pushes a crosswalk button.

New signals that will raise the city's total to more than 100 are planned, being installed or nearly completed. They include new signals now operating but still needing adjustment at Vineyard and Ruby Hill Drive, Bernal and Meadowlark, and West Las Positas at Dorman. Installation work is under way at four other intersections: Bernal at Tawny/Vineyard next to the Vintage Hills Shopping Center; Bernal at Pleasanton Avenue at the corner of the Fairgrounds; Vineyard Avenue at Montevino/El Capitan; and at Foothill Road/San Ramon Valley Boulevard at I-580.

Three more are in the design stage and will be installed later this year on Foothill Road in front of Foothill High School; at Bernal and Main Street; and facing southbound I-680 traffic as it exits onto Bernal. A traffic signal also is planned for Bernal at Kottinger Drive. When completed, Bernal will have 13 signals in its 4-mile stretch of roadway.

Traffic Engineer Jeff Knowles, who has more than 25 years of traffic engineering experience, believes traffic signals are a safer and more efficient way of controlling and moving traffic. Hired three years ago from Berkeley, where Knowles was traffic engineer, he has won City Council approval to replace four-way-stop intersections with traffic signals, which allow traffic to move more smoothly and also provide needed breaks for side street traffic along the way. Motorists trying to exit Hearst Drive onto Bernal during morning or evening rush hour traffic often wait several minutes for a break, which a traffic light at Kottinger will eventually provide.

Knowles also gained council approval to experiment with metering lights, which are designed to reduce the flow of cut-through traffic. Although the council ordered metering stopped on Sunol Boulevard because of complaints from local residents, they have allowed Knowles to install metering lights for cars heading down I-580 eastbound ramps at Hopyard, Hacienda and Santa Rita interchanges. Knowles and the council will review the effectiveness of those lights in a traffic "modeling" meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 13.

Most controversial has been the new traffic light at Ruby Hill Drive, which, at the council's request, favors Ruby Hill traffic and delays motorists on Vineyard Avenue. It is part of a major effort to discourage motorists from Livermore and cities to the east from using Vineyard to cut through Pleasanton to I-580 and I-680 interchanges.

"The most severe metering of westbound Vineyard Avenue traffic coming into the city from Isabel Avenue occurs between 7:15 and 8:15 a.m.," Knowles said. "This program only allows about 200 westbound vehicles into the city per hour. But even with the metering rate, we still experience a two-to-three block queue of cars at Montevino Drive. Before metering, the traffic backup at this four-way stop was almost half a mile long."

Councilman Steve Brozosky said he has no problem with metering westbound Vineyard traffic, but questioned why the metering continues all day long and every day, including weekends. Even Ruby Hill residents have complained, saying the backups at night delay them from reaching Ruby Hill Drive where they can make their right turns into the community. Knowles said the signal timing is set to stop and delay eastbound traffic about 20-25 seconds from 4:30 to 6 p.m., but then reverts to an average of 15-second delays for Vineyard traffic.

Besides the metered light at Ruby Hill Drive, Vineyard Avenue is also being realigned, with two roundabouts (traffic circles) planned for the new stretch of roadway that will open next spring. A traffic signal also will be installed at Montevino Drive, with an extra twist. It will turn red immediately if it detects any motorist approaching the intersection above the posted speed limit.

Vineyard Avenue also is being narrowed back to two lanes between Montevino and Bernal, again to reduce speeds and discourage high-volume traffic. During the evening rush hours, cars waiting to make left turns onto Vineyard from Bernal back up a half-mile or more.

Knowles points out that most traffic signals cost between $150,000 and $175,000 depending on size and location. Most signals have been paid for by developers, although the city paid the cost of the traffic light at First Street and Kottinger Drive and the major signalization work at Bernal and Vineyard, near the Bernal Avenue bridge.

With the city budget funding up to two new signals each year, motorists can expect more lights to replace four-way-stop intersections in Pleasanton.

Blue lights spot red light runners

Pleasanton has installed small blue lights at several of its most dangerous intersections to help traffic cops spot and then safely pursue red light runners coming from the opposite direction.

A motorcycle patrol officer, sitting curbside on northbound Santa Rita across from Safeway, can monitor motorists making left turns in the southbound lanes onto eastbound Valley Avenue. When the officer sees a blue light turn on, that means the left turn signal has turned red. Any motorist who proceeds across the pedestrian crosswalk at that point is running the red light and can be ticketed.

"We refer to it as the 'rat light' because it rats on the red light runner," said Patrol Officer Eric Fredgren.

He said the device has made it safer for police to pursue red light runners from safer locations that lead in the direction the motorist is traveling. Before the blue light was installed at Santa Rita and Valley, the city's most dangerous intersection, traffic cops would position their motorcycles at the Shell Oil station, and then have to cross six lanes of traffic to apprehend the violator in the eastbound lanes of Valley.

Traffic judges appear to be accepting the blue light documentation. Fredgren said police have been to court several times to document their arrests, with successful prosecutions every time.

The blue lights are also installed and operating at Stanley and Valley, and Hopyard and Stoneridge, both high-risk intersections. They are among 10 intersections where accident rates are high that will have the blue lights in 2004.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.