Workshop focuses on dangerous crosswalk

The intersection at Livorna and Wilson roads where drivers turn into Alamo Elementary is an accident waiting to happen, agreed everyone at a traffic safety meeting in the school’s multipurpose room Thursday night.

Principal Stan Hitomi began the workshop with a news clip about Sioreli Torres, a second-grader in East Palo Alto who was struck in a crosswalk and killed in September by a teacher. He pointed out that the Alamo School crosswalk, which crosses Livorna at Wilson, is similar in that both are known to be dangerous.

“It has poor visibility,” Hitomi said. “There is a hill, a curve, shadows and foliage on the south side, and no lighting at night.”

Eastbound traffic travels up the hill too fast and drivers see the crosswalk too late, added several people, despite the signage and lights that flash before and after school in both directions.

Hitomi agreed, saying, “I don’t put a crossing guard out there because I don’t want a crossing guard to get hit.”

A survey of 98 school families showed 58 would use the crosswalk if it were made safer. The school currently has 200 families with about 328 children; 160 of the students live south of Livorna Road.

A resident of Vernal Drive, which enters Livorna just west of Wilson, talked about pulling up to the stop sign and looking back and forth many times during school traffic before pulling out.

“Just when you think it’s safe, a pedestrian walks into the crosswalk,” he said. “There are too many near-misses.”

One woman pointed out that drivers use the bicycle lanes on Livorna as extra lanes, creating “a non-existent fourth lane”; when cars stop at the crosswalk, others zoom around them on the right, endangering anyone in the crosswalk.

“The biggest concern is the inconsiderate moms in SUVs,” said a Wilson Road resident. “You need to educate the parents.”

“I agree 100 percent,” Hitomi responded. “When I’ve stood on that corner, I could make a special on people behaving badly.

“We want to improve pedestrian safety, improve traffic safety and improve community awareness,” he said.

Discussion also centered on moving the crosswalk farther east so it would be easier to see.

“Move it to Trotter. There’s better visibility and you don’t have the problem of the sun,” said one parent. “Mainly it gets kids away from most of the congestion and the blindness of the hill.”

“I really like the idea of moving the crosswalk but don’t put it in the Trotter intersection, put it right in the middle of the road between Trotter and Wilson,” suggested Steve Mick, a member of the Alamo Municipal Advisory Council, which is appointed by the county.

The workshop also explored creating other entrances to the school, such as widening Livorna Road near Trotter and building a trail to the ball fields, or putting a road through to Dapplegray Lane, which dead ends to the north end of the school parking lot. Many neighborhood children already use this approach to walk to school.

Some people suggested traffic signals to operate only during school hours, or speed bumps.

The latest traffic survey showed 11,000 car trips per day on Livorna Road; from 2003-07 there were 31 reported collisions, and 42 percent of those involved injuries or fatalities.

“In 1996, there were 10,000 trips a day,” noted Alamo activist Vicki Koc, a former Alamo School parent who spent years getting a bike lane installed for students attending Stone Valley Middle School, so the number of trips hasn’t increased significantly.

Toward the end of the meeting one parent asked what the next step would be.

“The supervisor said this problem has been going on for too long,” said Donna Maxwell from the office of District 2 County Supervisor Gayle B. Uilkema. “She wants residents to work on a solution.”

Mick said the MAC members have addressed the problem many times, and that money for improvements could come from the Alamo Area of Benefit Fund, which is paid by developers to mitigate impacts of new homes.

The signs and flashers on Livorna Road near the school came from the fund, Koc said later, but at a 2008 community meeting to rate traffic problems throughout Alamo, the Alamo School traffic congestion only received one out of 12 stars for priority.

Also, it takes from 58 to 88 weeks for a project to be approved for the Benefit Fund list, since the process requires meetings with community groups, scoping the project for a cost estimate, environmental processes, engineer’s reports, review by counsel, board hearings and board approval.

“We have applied for a grant for a strobe and we hope to have it installed before the beginning of the next school year,” Assistant Public Works Director Jerry Fahy said. It would have rapid, repeated flashing with beacons and in-ground warning lights.

On Friday morning two California Highway Patrol officers were monitoring the stretch of Livorna between Wilson Road and Trotter Way, stopping cars for speeding. Usually they use their speed gun down the hill near the freeway, one said, but their supervisor told them that morning to watch the area near the school.

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