Staff Report & Attachment 1
PREPARED BY: MATT MORLEY
DIRECTOR OF PARKS AND PUBLIC WORKS
Reviewed by: Town Manager, Assistant Town Manager, Town Attorney, Police Chief, and Finance
Director
110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● 408-354-6832
www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
MEETING DATE: 8/07/2018
ITEM NO: 11
DATE: AUGUST 1, 2018
TO: MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL
FROM: LAUREL PREVETTI, TOWN MANAGER
SUBJECT: DISCUSS THE DYNAMICS OF THE SUMMER OF 2018 CUT THROUGH TRAFFIC
AND DIRECT STAFF TO CONTINUE THE CURRENT EFFORTS
RECOMMENDATION:
Discuss the dynamics of the Summer of 2018 cut through traffic and direct staff to continue the
current efforts.
BACKGROUND:
On March 6, 2018, the Town Council discussed summer cut through traffic and provided
direction to forego implementation of the temporary roundabout closure at Wood Road
leading to Highway 17 and provided latitude for staff to close Almond Grove at Massol, Tait,
and Ridgecrest, and to implement neighborhood turn restriction signage as needed during the
course of the summer.
Cut through traffic causes significant impacts in the community and to date the Town Council
has engaged in a series of efforts to mitigate the effects. Provided below is a summary of
ongoing mitigation efforts:
Highway 9 Corridor Study – A draft corridor study should be complete for Council review later
in August.
South Santa Cruz Avenue at Wood Road Roundabout – The conceptual design for this project
has been submitted to Caltrans for preliminary review. Caltrans will provide guidance on
permitting of the project as it relates to Caltrans right of way. Guidance from Caltrans is
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SUBJECT: DISCUSS THE DYNAMICS OF THE SUMMER OF 2018 CUT THROUGH TRAFFIC
AND DIRECT STAFF TO CONTINUE THE CURRENT EFFORTS
AUGUST 1, 2018
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BACKGROUND (cont’d):
expected in the next thirty days. Once Caltrans has provided this guidance, the Town can more
definitively scope the project and timeline. If the project moves forward, the Town will need to
identify funding for design and construction. Staff anticipates a timeline of 18 to 24 months
once funding is in place.
Pilot Reclassification of Town Streets – The mapping companies have been provided a list of
Town streets to reclassify from residential collector to residential per previous Council
direction. Waze acknowledged and made adjustments, Apple acknowledged receipt of the
information, and Google acknowledged receipt. Based on observations of mapping
applications, it appears that Google has not implemented the updates as Google maps
continues to direct traffic to the neighborhood streets.
Highway 17 Efficiencies – Due to the lawsuit associated with Measure B funding, no further
effort has been made on this item.
Downtown One-Way Streets – The Council has funded the study for this project within the
Capital Improvement Program and staff will begin that work this year.
Legislation – Town staff recently reached out to Senator Beall’s office to explore the
opportunity of introducing state legislation to assist with cut through traffic, submitting
documentation to begin the discussion on a modification of the California Vehicle Code to allow
local jurisdictions to prohibit the directing of traffic onto streets outside of the designed use of
those streets per Federal Highway Administration Standards. The Vehicle Code and proposed
amendment are provided as Attachment 1.
This report highlights the operational efforts the Town has made during this cut through traffic
season in response to observation of traffic patterns, resident concerns through increased
communication, and the trial of mitigation measures where they make sense.
DISCUSSION:
Approaching the 2018 cut through traffic season, staff intended to hold off on implementing
turn restrictions until several heavy traffic weekends had occurred such that a comparison
could be drawn between before and after conditions. Knowing that physical changes were not
going to be visible, staff focused on helping residents understand the full breadth of activities.
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SUBJECT: DISCUSS THE DYNAMICS OF THE SUMMER OF 2018 CUT THROUGH TRAFFIC
AND DIRECT STAFF TO CONTINUE THE CURRENT EFFORTS
AUGUST 1, 2018
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DISCUSSION (cont’d):
Communication with the Community
At the beginning of this year’s annual cut through traffic season, staff implemented a Cut
Through Traffic reporting phone line and email. The purpose of the reporting platform was to
provide residents with a vehicle to report non-emergency concerns and insights regarding cut
through traffic in their neighborhoods. In addition, the reporting platform provided staff with
an additional conduit to receive real time information regarding neighborhood traffic patterns
and impacts. The reporting platform was initiated during the Memorial Day weekend and since
its roll out has received 84 resident inquiries. It should be noted, that of the 84 inquiries not all
were unique inquiries. Of the 84 inquiries, one resident accounted for 10, another resident
accounted for 6, two residents for 3, and seven residents for 2 each. The graph below
illustrates the distribution of inquiries per weekend and provides a brief summary of primary
geographic locations where calls emanated from and areas of emphasis of messages. The
18
3
1
0
15
3
2
10
11
21
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Cut Through Traffic Calls/Emails
No turn restrictions Lower Ridgecrest,
Hernandez and Overlook impacted. Messages
emphasize continuing Wood closure.
No turn restrictions Lower
Ridgecrest, Hernandez, Overlook,
North SC and Almond Grove
impacted. Messages emphasize safety
concerns.
No turn restrictions Lower Ridgecrest,
Hernandez and Overlook impacted. Messages
emphasize continuing turn restrictions.
Turn restrictions implemented
Upper Ridgecrest impacted. Messages
emphasize removal of turn restrictions.
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SUBJECT: DISCUSS THE DYNAMICS OF THE SUMMER OF 2018 CUT THROUGH TRAFFIC
AND DIRECT STAFF TO CONTINUE THE CURRENT EFFORTS
AUGUST 1, 2018
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DISCUSSION (cont’d):
weekends of May 27th, June 24th, and July 29th commanded the most call and email volume due
to general traffic impacts associated with high volumes of vehicles. The inquiries on July 15 th
and July 22nd were almost exclusively related to road closure implementations on Ridgecrest,
Massol and Tait, and not heavy vehicle volumes.
In addition to the information provided on the previous page the chart below shows the
percentages for five broad categories of message inquiries.
In addition to the volume and nature of inquiries staff also observed that the vast majority of
resident inquiries received were attributed to the western locales of town.
43%
14%
21%
6%
16%GENERAL COMPLAINT
GENERAL QUESTION/
SUGGESTION
TURN RESTRICTIONS
WOOD ROAD CLOSURE
SAFETY ISSUE
10%
84%
6%
NORTH OF HIGHWAY 9
WEST SANTA CRUZ AVENUE
EAST OF SANTA CRUZ AVENUE
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SUBJECT: DISCUSS THE DYNAMICS OF THE SUMMER OF 2018 CUT THROUGH TRAFFIC
AND DIRECT STAFF TO CONTINUE THE CURRENT EFFORTS
AUGUST 1, 2018
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DISCUSSION (cont’d):
Routine posts on Nextdoor.com in parallel with Town website and What’s New postings
allowed for broad outreach to residents on the approach for each weekend. This
communication helped to reassure the community that the Town was engaged with the issue
and trying various approaches to provide relief. Nextdoor.com provides a measure for tracking
the reach of the messaging and cut through traffic posts on Nextdoor.com held six of the top
ten most impactful Town posts this year.
The use of the Town’s portable changeable message boards provided an opportunity to direct
communications to residents and non-residents alike with a focus on corridors that are most
important. For most of the summer, a message board has been in place on Highway 9 prior to
Ridgecrest Avenue in Monte Sereno to try to discourage cut through traffic on Ridgecrest. In
addition, a second message board on Blossom Hill Road directed traffic away from Cherry
Blossom Avenue, encouraging the use of Los Gatos Boulevard. Messages on both boards were
designed to catch the notice of the drivers with pointed challenges of mapping application
directions while providing Town preferred routes.
Further up the road, Town staff has worked with Caltrans to ensure that the permanent
changeable message boards along the freeway reflected the message “Santa Cruz Traffic Use
Hwy 17.” This provided advance notice encouraging freeway use ahead of typical cut through
routes.
Police Department Activity
Where staffing has been available due to manageable call volume or availability of Reserve
Officers and capacity for overtime, the Police Department focused on providing visible activities
to ensure public safety. One aspect of this effort included monitoring and enforcement of busy
intersections for vehicles blocking or impeding traffic. Through the end of July, the Police
Department issued approximately 300 warnings and citations for these violations during beach
traffic times. Officers developed a streamlined approach to making these traffic stops that
minimized the impact on adjacent traffic, and to avoid compounding the traffic issue. This work
comes at a cost in resources as three-person teams of Officers were required to be effective to
maintain enforcement and traffic flow. Creative deployment of Reserve Officers and Parking
Control Officers in partnership with available Patrol Officers allowed for this added service.
The Police Department also implemented optional patrol bicycle collateral assignment for
trained Officers assigned to patrol beats in high congested traffic areas on Saturdays and
Sundays. This assignment when available, provides increased mobility in high traffic areas
when responding to both emergency and non-emergency calls for service.
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SUBJECT: DISCUSS THE DYNAMICS OF THE SUMMER OF 2018 CUT THROUGH TRAFFIC
AND DIRECT STAFF TO CONTINUE THE CURRENT EFFORTS
AUGUST 1, 2018
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DISCUSSION (cont’d):
Finally, in collaboration with Parks and Public Works, the Police Department has deployed
smaller, portable signage at traffic congested intersections when necessary, t o discourage
drivers from blocking intersections. The signage has been utilized on a discretionary basis at
intersections that are not being monitored or enforced, as an additional tool to deter bad
driving behaviors and maintain accessibility through traffic intersections.
It is also important to note that the Police Department has been able to maintain its response
times to priority calls during the heavy traffic periods.
Almond Grove
The construction taking place in the Almond Grove had the impact of reducing traffic in that
neighborhood as road closures made the area more difficult to navigate and more difficult for
mapping applications to direct drivers through. This was especially true while Bean Avenue was
closed, although a number of vehicles were seen driving around road closed barricades (and
ultimately returning the way they came) in an effort to get through the neighborhoods.
Staff anticipates the reconstruction of Bean Avenue to complete by mid-August in time for St.
Mary’s to return for the first day of school. The completion of Bean Avenue will mean that the
cut through route in the Almond Grove will be clear again. The next street subject to
reconstruction is Wilder Avenue, which will not have a significant impact on cut through traffic.
Next summer Nicholson and Almendra Avenues will be reconstructed and, depending on the
scheduling, will have an impact for at least a part of the summer.
Transportation Infrastructure
Town staff monitored traffic signals throughout and made adjustments to accommodate the
flow of traffic at signals on Town controlled arterials. This includes the signals on Los Gatos
Boulevard between Blossom Hill Road and Highway 9, as well as the signals on Main Street
downtown. The signal timing allows better flow on the arterial corridors to reduce spillover
into neighborhoods and is set to align with time of day needs for cut through traffic.
As previously mentioned turn restrictions were implemented at Ridgecrest, Tait, and Massol
Avenues on several weekends. These restrictions met the combination of needs for both trying
adjustments for cut through traffic and providing safe streets during construction when routes
through the Almond Grove were not passable. Restrictions on Massol Avenue have been in
place for most of the summer due to work on that street in the immediate vicinity of Highway
9.
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SUBJECT: DISCUSS THE DYNAMICS OF THE SUMMER OF 2018 CUT THROUGH TRAFFIC
AND DIRECT STAFF TO CONTINUE THE CURRENT EFFORTS
AUGUST 1, 2018
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DISCUSSION (cont’d):
Full turn restrictions at Ridgecrest created significant inconvenience for many residents. As an
adjustment, the second weekend of turn restrictions at this location included only restrictions
on the right turn from eastbound Highway 9 to Ridgecrest. This meant the left turn from
westbound Highway 9 remained open. Staff anticipated a number of violators of the right turn
restriction and was comfortable with achieving a reduction in cut through traffic and not
necessarily eliminating it completely. Feedback after this adjustment was that the left turn was
not clear to residents and difficult to navigate. As the change seemed to be doing more
harm than good, staff removed the turn restrictions for the weekend of July 28 th. This resulted
in significant cut through traffic along Ridgecrest, creating a huge impact along the narrow
roadway. Staff will revisit the turn restrictions for the weekend of August 4th and be able to
report verbally to the Council on the outcome.
The weekend of July 28th resulted in virtually no cut through traffic on Tait, however all of the
apps still showed the road closed at Bean for construction, significantly influencing the use of
that route.
Traffic Patterns
Observed conditions of traffic increases throughout the day has led staff to a 10:00 a.m. to 3:00
p.m. target timeframe for implementing traffic management efforts and help ensure that the
various efforts are in place prior to the heaviest of traffic. A full review of observed traffic
patterns can be useful in understanding the impact to the Town.
Traffic begins in the morning with increasing congestion until around the 10:30 a.m. timeframe
when traffic on the highway becomes slow enough to trigger applications to redirect traffic to
arterial streets. As the congestion continues to grow towards noon, the arterials also
experience significant delay and this creates a shift to more residential streets. This persists
until about 2:00 p.m. when relief on Highway 17 begins and the buildup on arterials is
reversed. This pattern was very evident on July 28th when staff observed long queues of traffic
along Main Street and up through Hernandez. At 2:00 p.m., almost as if someone had flipped a
switch, the traffic on Hernandez disappeared. Highway 17, Highway 9, and Santa Cruz Avenue
retained heavy cut through traffic, but the system began to recover.
This pattern occurs regularly and is common especially on Saturdays, but also on the occasional
Sunday. Although the timing can vary and there are some extreme days, the impact to
residential streets lasts for approximately 3.5 hours on a handful of days each ear. Staff
estimates the total actual impact at only 20 to 25 hours over the course of a summer.
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SUBJECT: DISCUSS THE DYNAMICS OF THE SUMMER OF 2018 CUT THROUGH TRAFFIC
AND DIRECT STAFF TO CONTINUE THE CURRENT EFFORTS
AUGUST 1, 2018
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DISCUSSION (cont’d):
Another element of traffic patterns has been the change in flow created by the mapping
applications. This is particularly evident when observing one busy location, such as the
intersection of Highway 9 and Santa Cruz Avenue, where over the course of a couple of hours
traffic ebbs and flows from various directions. This real time adjustment made by the
applications makes effective traffic control, infrastructure modifications, and traffic
enforcement very challenging.
Consistent with previous summers, traffic patterns have remained erratic with a few interesting
observations made by staff.
• Through the season to date, there have been only a few requests for the re-implementation
of the closure at Wood Road.
• The cut through traffic season starts with Memorial Day, with some relief after that holiday
weekend until schools are out for the summer.
• Hot weeks preceding a hot weekend create the biggest impact.
• The 4th of July holiday falling mid-week may have spread the impact across a wider
timeframe than if the holiday had been on the weekend.
CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS:
The real time dynamic nature of mapping applications and their creation of the cut through
traffic phenomenon makes getting ahead of the problem extremely challenging or impossible.
This combined with the relatively small number of actual hours annually where the Town is
impacted create a dynamic where the extreme expense and effort may not be commensurate
with a small potential reward. The direction taken this summer to communicate activities that
are in place and implementing efforts that minimize spill over impact to other parts of Town
and minimize unneeded investments have provided relatively positive outcomes.
Ongoing efforts to achieve bigger impact relief will continue, often over the longer term and
the Council will be able to weigh in on these initiatives as they progress.
Staff recommends continuing the direction provided by the Council on March 6th through the
balance of the summer.
COORDINATION:
This report was coordinated with the Police Department.
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SUBJECT: DISCUSS THE DYNAMICS OF THE SUMMER OF 2018 CUT THROUGH TRAFFIC
AND DIRECT STAFF TO CONTINUE THE CURRENT EFFORTS
AUGUST 1, 2018
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FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no anticipated fiscal impact from this report.
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT:
This is not a project defined under CEQA, and no further action is required.
Attachment:
1. Proposed Legislative Change to the California Vehicle Code
ATTACHMENT 1
California Vehicle Code
21101. Local authorities, for those highways under their jurisdiction, may
adopt rules and regulations by ordinance or resolution on the following
matters:
(a) Closing any highway to vehicular traffic when, in the opinion of the
legislative body having jurisdiction, the highway is either of the
following:
(1) No longer needed for vehicular traffic.
(2) The closure is in the interests of public safety and all of the
following conditions and requirements are met:
(A) The street proposed for closure is located in a county
with a population of 6,000,000 or more.
(B) The street has an unsafe volume of traffic and a
significant incidence of crime.
(C) The affected local authority conducts a public hearing
on the proposed street closure.
(D) Notice of the hearing is provided to residents and
owners of property adjacent to the street proposed for
closure.
(E) The local authority makes a finding that closure of the
street likely would result in a reduced rate of crime.
(b) Designating any highway as a through highway and requiring that
all vehicles observe official traffic control devices before entering or
crossing the highway or designating any intersection as a stop
intersection and requiring all vehicles to stop at one or more entrances
to the intersection.
(c) Prohibiting the use of particular highways by certain vehicles,
except as otherwise provided by the Public Utilities Commission
pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with Section 1031) of Chapter 5 of
Part 1 of Division 1 of the Public Utilities Code.
(d) Closing particular streets during regular school hours for the
purpose of conducting automobile driver training programs in the
secondary schools and colleges of this state.
(e) Temporarily closing a portion of any street for celebrations,
parades, local special events, and other purposes when, in the opinion
of local authorities having jurisdiction or a public officer or employee
that the local authority designates by resolution, the closing is
necessary for the safety and protection of persons who are to use that
portion of the street during the temporary closing.
(f) Prohibiting entry to, or exit from, or both, from any street by
means of islands, curbs, traffic barriers, or other roadway design
features to implement the circulation element of a general plan
adopted pursuant to Article 6 (commencing with Section 65 350) of
ATTACHMENT 1
Chapter 3 of Division 1 of Title 7 of the Government Code. The rules
and regulations authorized by this subdivision shall be consistent with
the responsibility of local government to provide for the health and
safety of its citizens.
(g) Prohibiting the directing or guiding of vehicles, by any means, to a
roadway or route where the routing does not comply with the intended
use of the roadway(s) as defined by the Federal Highway
Administration Roadway Functional Classification and recorded with
the State Department of Transportation, except as determined is
necessary by a public safety official or for the facilitation of
construction activities.