“It’s great to see the Sixth Street improvement project continuing. I am hoping that as part of this project the city plans to make the intersection of Sixth and Eigleberry a four-way stop. This is a very dangerous intersection and there have been a number of accidents because of it being just a two-way stop. Also, pedestrians are a risk at this intersection due to the speeding vehicles and oblivious drivers. Can anyone verify whether the project will include a four-way stop?”
Red Phone: Dear Stop Sign Needed, There are several intersections along Eigleberry Drive that have just a two-way stop. But a stop sign does not always make a road safer and in some cases could actually increase accidents because people expect others to stop when they don’t, said Don Dey, city transportation engineer.
“It is meant as a safety feature not as speed control feature,” he said.
People sometimes think that adding a stop sign is an easy fix, but sometimes it can create more problems, said David Stubchaer, Gilroy operations director.
“Traffic engineering is not always as straightforward as many drivers may think, he said. “One person’s perception of a dangerous intersection may have no basis in fact. The addition of stop signs can sometimes have unintended consequences. Intersection improvements usually require a traffic study and careful analysis of data and traffic flow.”
The city looked at the traffic in this area and the amount of accidents and determined that a four-way stop was not needed, Dey said.
“That intersection is close to Monterey Road and a stop sign there could cause traffic to unnecessarily back up,” he said. “When that happens, drivers get impatient and accidents happen. You have to consider what is going on in the area and the function of the roadway. Sixth Street is a collector street. It is an area meant to allow traffic to move around. You have streets like Fourth and Fifth street that are more residential and therefore have stop signs.”
However that doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be any improvements on Sixth and Eigleberry. The city is adding additional lights to make the intersection more visible and is decreasing the road width and widening the sidewalks to make it safer for pedestrians to cross, Dey said.
