HomeMy WebLinkAbout9/30/2021 cc - Ayral (Foothill and Hwy 1)
Delgado, Adriana
From:Odile Ayral <odileayral@gmail.com>
Sent:Wednesday, PM
To:Advisory Bodies
Subject:ATC Communication
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Dear ATC Committee Members,
My Foothill neighborhood has seen 3 deaths of young people in three years, two on their bikes on Foothill Boulevard
and one in his car at the intersection of Highland with Hwy 1. It cannot go on like this. It is my understanding that Cal
Trans is in charge of changing the speed limit and conditions at Highland, so I urge you to ask them to cut down the
speed limit to 40 or even less between Cal Fire and Highland (presently it is 55 and is posted 45 only at Highland). They
should also install those apparatus that make noise as you drive on them to remind people to slow down. This
intersection is usually packed with cars, bikes and pedestrians, and little attention has been given to increase safety for
the bikers and the pedestrians.
As for Foothill, where can I start? When I moved here in 1978, and walked to Cal Poly, I tried Foothill once. That was
enough. The noise, the traffic, the pollution, the danger of feeling cars so close that if anything happened they could
ram into you, all this made me switch to Highland for the rest of my career. At least, once I had passed the intersection
with Santa Rosa, I was safe. Love and Kooi were not so lucky. They rode their bikes just as the City urged them to do,
and they were killed. You will say they were killed by drunk drivers, and it is true, but you know just as well as I do that it
is not the whole picture, especially for Kooi. At the beginning of the construction of 790 Foothill, the builders closed so
much of Foothill at the Broad intersection that nobody knew where they were supposed to go. It was the most
confusing mess you have ever seen and I wish I had taken a picture. It is so easy to place all the blame on a teenager
who did something really stupid (as so many teenagers do) that unfortunately turned deadly. But it turned deadly
because the construction was poorly managed, and at night, there was nobody to direct the traffic through the maze the
developers had created.
This building is right along the sidewalk, there is no set back, and you know it will make an unsafe area even worse. The
City is not planning to do anything about it until two years from now, so I am urging you to push them to do the right
thing if you don’t want to add another death to this area.
--The first thing is to install separate bike lanes from California to Tassajara and possibly beyond. They should be
installed before the odious building is open for renting (I hope it sits empty forever!)
--The second thing is to find ways to make these two intersections much safer, especially for cyclists and
pedestrians: Foothill / Chorro and Foothill / Broad. You know more than I do on this subject.
--The third thing is to defang the buiding: change the garage exit (which is where Andreas Kooi was killed) Put it
somewhere else or close the damn thing. Unfortunately, we can’t put the building further in, but anything that could
lessen the impact of the building should be considered. Thank you.
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Sincerely,
Odile Ayral
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