Hillsdale Avenue is a safety priority because of crashes

Q I learned that Hillsdale Avenue in San Jose may undergo some major changes. These include eliminating one lane in each direction for a bike lane and eliminating the center turn lane, which would limit left turns to just a few places between Almaden Expressway and Camden Avenue.

I have lived off Hillsdale for 40 years. Traffic has only increased. There are very few to no bike riders. Putting in a bike lane will not change that. If traffic is impeded, it will divert to Foxworthy Avenue. Apparently, slowing traffic is the aim.

That is a good goal, but speed limit enforcement is the better way to do this.

Eliminating left turns will cause residents to drive on other streets to get home. There are a few accidents every year — bad ones — but they are at the traffic lights, not in between them. —DanaTucker,

San Jose

A

Hillsdale is one of the city’s 17 priority safety corridors, due to its high frequency of crashes. But there aren’t enough traffic cops to cover all areas. So instead, the favored approach is to reduce speed along Hillsdale with a road diet as has happened on Tully Road, Branham Lane, Lincoln Avenue, Winchester Boulevard, Pruneridge Avenue and Moorpark Avenue.

The city says Hillsdale is oversized for the amount of traffic it carries, meaning it has more lanes than necessary for existing and projected future traffic.

This is likely encouraging some people to speed in that area.

By reducing the number of lanes, the city will “right size” the street, which makes speeding less possible, less enticing and gives the room to add spacious, protected bike lanes.

The other concerns are crashes caused by unsafe left turns, which is why the city will redesign leftturn lanes to reduce the number of potential conflicts.

The city will also add median islands to address unsafe left turns while allowing access at appropriate location opportunities, add u-turns, adjust traffic signals, apply yellow reflective borders to traffic signal heads to enhance visibility, resurface the pavement and install high-visibility crosswalks to make crosswalks and pedestrians more visible.

Work should be completed by the end of the year.

Q Since the pandemic lockdown, I’ve noticed more pedestrians walking out into the street without even looking for traffic.

I ride a bike so they don’t hear me approaching, but considering how many hybrid and electric vehicles there are now that are fairly quiet, I think these folks are taking their lives into their hands, and maybe mine with them. It’s pretty frustrating. — Paula Hucal, San Jose

A You raise a valuable point. We all need to pay more attention and slow down.