GILROY
– Drive down First Street enough times and the five-lane dashers
are bound to make an appearance, if only briefly.
Starting on either the north or south side of the five-lane
commercial thoroughfare, short-cutting pedestrians often chose to
engage in a game of Frogger with the busy traffic instead of
walking a few hundred feet to crosswalks.
GILROY – Drive down First Street enough times and the five-lane dashers are bound to make an appearance, if only briefly.
Starting on either the north or south side of the five-lane commercial thoroughfare, short-cutting pedestrians often chose to engage in a game of Frogger with the busy traffic instead of walking a few hundred feet to crosswalks.
That mentality caused a major injury collision between a jaywalking pedestrian and a First Street vehicle on Aug. 1 and resulted in the death of a jaywalker in December. It needs to stop before somebody else dies, according to Mayor Tom Springer.
“You see it all the time on First Street, people illegally crossing the street through traffic, kids flying across four lanes of traffic on their bikes,” Springer said. “It’s dangerous to them and people driving, but I don’t think this is a problem of city engineering. People need to be patient walk to the next block where they can use an intersection.”
Along the heavily commercialized area between Miller Avenue and Santa Teresa Boulevard on First Street, only two crosswalk-lined intersections located a third of a mile apart – one at Wren Avenue and the other at Westwood Drive – provide legal and safe areas for pedestrians to cross the five-lane road.
The stretch of sidewalk is long compared to other commercial areas in the city, but fits the city’s and Caltrans parameters for intersection and crosswalk frequency. Because First Street is part of westbound Highway 152, Caltrans – whose guidelines for crosswalk implementation are nearly identical to Gilroy’s – oversees the city’s regulation of the area, said Kristi Abrams, the city’s traffic engineer.
Although the city’s capital improvement plan schedules the addition of a traffic signal and crosswalk to First Street between Wren Avenue and Westwood Drive within the next few years, Abrams doesn’t think the signal is necessary now.
“There is pedestrian traffic that crosses First Street illegally, but the numbers do not really come close to meeting the city’s or Caltrans’ guidelines,” Abrams said. “Ninety or more people have to cross a street in any one hour to warrant a new traffic signal, and as you can tell from observation, First Street does not meet those standards.”
According to Abrams, Gilroy’s Capital Improvement Plan projects to spend $280,000 to construct a traffic signal and crosswalk at the intersection of Kern Avenue and First Streets – adjacent to Taco Bell – by the year 2006.
Additional pedestrian and vehicle traffic in the coming years should allow First Street to meet Caltrans’ use requirements that would warrant adding another intersection, Abrams said.
But as the city waits for Caltrans approval, the long stretches of sidewalk between Santa Teresa Boulevard and Miller Avenue on First Street will likely continue tempting pedestrians to test their luck against cars often traveling around 45 mph – at least 10 mph over the legal limit.
Certain areas of First Street, such as the bus stop in front of the cemetery on the south side of the road directly across from the Safeway shopping center, remain as prime targets for people cutting across traffic to arrive at their destination. This is the area where well-liked local transient “Jimbo” Osterhoff was fatally hit by an unidentified driver of an SUV while trying to cross First Street on a rainy December evening.
The segment of First Street between Santa Teresa Boulevard and Westwood Drive, where Gilroy pedestrian Joe Arthur Guerrero was severely injured illegally crossing the street on Aug. 1, is also known for heavy foot traffic.
Abrams said Caltrans has recently added crossing signals to many of the First Street crosswalks that allow for longer pedestrian crossing times than before.
The signals, which most recently were put in place at the corner of Santa Teresa Boulevard and First Street, are designed to give seniors and the disabled ample time to cross the street. An additional crosswalk is also scheduled for the southwest corner of the intersection once construction of nearby housing development is complete, Abrams said.
“It’s frustrating to watch people endanger themselves and you because they don’t want to walk a couple extra feet,” Springer said. “The city has made the commitment to provide safe crossings for any Gilroy pedestrians, but unfortunately we can’t do it every few feet. The blame for these accidents shouldn’t be placedß on a lack of crossings, but poor judgment by pedestrians.”
