Developers are footing the bill for a variety of local traffic improvements, including the recent installation of Gilroy’s first roundabout and the addition of left-turn signals to some of city’s busier intersections.
Los Angeles-based home building company KB Home, currently constructing Oak Place—comprised of 213 single-family homes and 24 condominiums on Gilroy’s south side—is paying for the modernization of three traffic signals.
KB Home will build a new traffic signal at the intersection of Luchessa Avenue and Princevalle Street and add left-turn signals to the intersections of Monterey Street and Luchessa Avenue and Monterey and 10th streets. According to City Transportation Engineer Henry Servin, all three signals are scheduled to go live by Oct. 1.
“They’re on the hook for those three signals and we’ve been working with them since January to get them all built,” Servin said. “They’ve got a big task on their hands but it looks like they’re getting them done.”
Developers are required to study how the construction of new homes or apartments would impact local traffic as part of the environmental review process, he explained. If traffic would be impacted once a property is occupied, developers must pay for improvements to mitigate expected traffic. The City structures many development agreements to require the construction of traffic mitigations prior to completion of the housing project.
“If they can prove they can build it to the City’s requirements but do it cheaper by using their own staff, developers can use their own contractor,” Servin said, adding that KB Home hired a local firm, Gilroy Construction Inc., to construct all three signals. “They need to keep the intersection working with the old signals and then eventually convert to the new ones.”
When the left-turn signals become operational, Servin said he expects traffic flow and safety to improve.
“As more people realize the left turn lights are there for them, it will remove some of the anxiety from the morning and evening commuters,” he added. “Right now, they have to take a chance that someone is going to turn in front of them.”
The Garlic Capital’s first roundabout is operational at the intersection of Luchessa Avenue and Thomas Road and nearly a dozen more could be constructed within the next seven years, according to Servin.
Developers within the Glen Loma Ranch and Hecker Pass Specific Plan Areas—the largest developments Gilroy has seen—will pay for the roundabouts that are up for consideration as part of their required public impact fees.
Each roundabout costs approximately $167,000—roughly the third of the cost of a new traffic signal—and they’re statistically much safer than traditional intersections, Servin said.
“A traditional intersection, whether it’s all-way stop signs or traffic signals, has 32 possible conflict points. We’re talking about rear-enders, T-bones, head-on collisions, left turn conflicts and the whole works. Roundabouts only have eight conflict points,” Servin said. “So we’re reducing the amount of potential crashes four-fold.”
While they’re a common form of intersection control across the world, roundabouts are becoming increasingly popular in the United States, according to a report from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program. The original form of a roundabout, called a traffic circle, was popular across Europe but the design was improved in the mid-1960s with additional safety requirements.
Roundabouts became part of the local conversation following Caltrans’ adoption of a policy in August 2013 that requires cities consider roundabouts in place of traditional traffic signals.
“Roundabouts help to increase safety, which is always the No. 1 concern,” Servin said. “It helps improve flow or level of service and it’s an opportunity for improved aesthetics.”
-The northeast and southeast corners of Christopher High School at Day Road
-Hecker Pass Highway at Autumn Street
-Third Street at Autumn Street
-Third Street at Cobblestone Court
-Third Street at Santa Teresa Boulevard
-10th Street at Santa Teresa Boulevard
-Miller Avenue at Santa Teresa Boulevard
-10th Street at Charles Lux Drive
-Luchessa Road at Cimino Drive
