Editorial Editorial (September 10, 2004)

Candidates need to explain traffic plans

It's refreshing to hear the six mayoral and City Council candidates promise in their campaign talks that they'll do something about traffic if elected. Traffic Engineer Jeff Knowles' baseline traffic report, which is now being used in preparing the General Plan, shows alarming traffic growth in the coming years. Although he has plans for more traffic signals to control and better pace this increase of motorists, the city's effort to narrow major arterial streets like Vineyard Avenue, to meter signals to slow down traffic and to delete the planned West Las Positas interchange at I-580 or the extension of Stoneridge Drive east to El Charro Road and Livermore could make traffic congestion far worse for city motorists as well as those who are cut-through traffic.

Knowles projects that based on business and retail growth and additional housing already approved by the city, Pleasanton could see by 2010 an increase of 12,200 new vehicle trips on city streets in the morning peak hour traffic, an increase of nearly 20 percent over today. The largest increase would come from employees heading to their jobs in Pleasanton - both those of us who live here and those from out of town - for a total of 7,300 new trips. He projects an 18 percent increase in the evening rush hour by 2010. Knowles admits that he based his projections on a full economic recovery that would see high occupancy rates in Hacienda and other business parks and increased retail businesses at Stoneridge Shopping Center, at neighborhood centers and downtown. By 2025, when Pleasanton is expected to reach buildout, traffic could be even worse. Knowles projects an increase of 21,600 new vehicle trips in the morning peak hours, or 35 percent more, with evening peak hour traffic increasing by another 24,900 cars, or 33 percent.

But Knowles' traffic estimates also put planners in a Catch 22 situation. As they consider requests for new businesses and housing developments to complete the city's General Plan, they are also governed by the Plan's requirement that new development be rejected if it would raise the city-prescribed "Level of Service" category on nearby streets and at intersections higher than "D." Based on Knowles' projections, 22 intersections would be operating at LOS "F" during one or more peak hours in 2010 and another nine at "E." With no state or regional money to fund more lanes on I-580 or I-680, or at the freeways' interchange, Knowles expects more of the ever-increasing congestion on those freeways to cut through on Pleasanton streets, adding to his projected increases. Without the Stoneridge extension or the West Las Positas interchange, or without wider streets and more turning lanes, planners would be unable to approve new retail projects, such as a 360,000-square-foot possible expansion at Stoneridge Mall, or new office centers and housing as envisioned at buildout for maintaining the fiscal stability of the city. These are the concerns candidates for mayor and the City Council need to address specifically when they talk about solving the traffic problems if elected.

One solution that candidates will be hard-pressed to suggest is more traffic signals. Criticized for already having too many in town, Knowles has more planned. The city's 97th signal was just turned on in front of Foothill High School. Ponderosa Homes is paying for new signals to be installed at Valley and Boulder (No. 98) and Busch at Ironwood Drive (No. 99), which will lead into Ponderosa's new Ironwood community. Pleasanton's 100th traffic light will be installed at the new fire station under construction on Bernal, just east of Valley, sometime next year. Another signal is being designed for the intersection of I-680 southbound at Bernal, which will be No. 101, and one is planned for the pedestrian and equestrian trail that will cross the newly aligned Vineyard Avenue, No. 102.

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