Safety the goal of ‘walk audit’

CUPERTINO — A spring “walk audit” of the tri-school area has generated recommendations the city could follow to make the busy area safer for students walking and biking to school.

The audit was conducted on May 18 and completed over the summer by representatives from Alta Planning + Design, city staff, and residents and parents living near Monta Vista High, Lincoln Elementary and Kennedy Middle schools.

The audit observed Monta Vista’s morning drop-off and Lincoln Elementary School’s afternoon pickup. According to the audit summary, walk audits can provide “insight into the specific barriers to walking and biking at each school.”

Project recommendations include adding a sidewalk or curbing to connect to the crosswalk at the northern side of the McClellan Road turn immediately after Byrne Avenue, discouraging drivers from parking in bicycle lanes, adding advance yield lines at McClellan and Byrne, adding advance warning stencils for hard-to-see crosswalks, adding school zone signage at McClellan and Bubb roads and widening sidewalks to accommodate more walking students, among many more recommendations.

At the high school, the audit yielded recommended improvements to the student drop-off area including repainting white curb dropoff zones, adding truncated dome sidewalks at high-volume driveways and installing a “no left turn” sign at the exit of the eastern parking lot.

For the elementary school, the audit recommended relocating bus dropoff to the staff parking lot to allow reconfiguration of the parent drop-off loop and consolidation of the drop-off loops on McClellan Road.

Though it is outside of the audit area, some participants suggested the intersection of Columbus and Wilkinson avenues be studied due to perceived danger.

There are also recommendations for more crossing guard training, improving the productivity of traffic flow directors and trying out a “walking school bus” for Lincoln Elementary students.

“A walking school bus is a set, established walking route from the surrounding neighborhood to a school, led by one or more parent volunteers,” the audit summary reads.

The walking route has set stop locations and times where parents can drop off their students to be “picked up” by the walking school bus.