Santa Clara:
I have to cross this street twice a day when I use the local bike path. This has got to be the most brain damaged traffic light design as there are a total of 3 crosswalks, since the trail is on one side of a creek on one side of the road then crosses to the opposite side of the creek on the other side of the road. So there are two pedestrian crosswalks plus a diagonal bike crosswalk (highlighted in GREEN lines) and a pair of lights (one circled in RED). Problem is as you can see in the attached photo, the traffic lights are at the far end of each two lanes of traffic instead of at the near end. I think drivers think you need to stop at the light, but by that time you have blown through the stop line (outlined in RED) and 2 crosswalks. There is the little "Stop Here on Red" sign (circled in RED) to the far right, but if folks are looking at the light in the distance, they are not going to see that sign. Plus if they see cars in the other lane stopped properly at the far crosswalk, they go up to the light to stop.
I have complained to the city about this dangerous situation, but nothing so far. Tonight, I was actually hit by a car while crossing in the crosswalk with the light in my favor. Luckily I was able to avoid major contact and with full padding, roll to the ground without harm. But now I have recontacted the city telling this is down right dangerous. I am surprised nobody has been killed here in the 2-3 years the lights and crosswalk have been up.
I mean I wait for the cross light, then I check for traffic - both directions, then I check again (this is where I saw the first car coming by me), and I guess I should have checked a third time, because that was the one that got me. Essentially I was crossing at the farthest crosswalk, going right to left and the car that hit me was about where the red vehicle was. It was a good 10 seconds since the light had changed by the time I stopped and waited for the first red light runner and then crossed 2 lanes of roadway. And the count down timer on that light is set to something like 15 seconds, so if you wait any longer, you risk getting caught out there when the lights change!
Even tonight, when the light first changed, I stepped off the curb and a vehicle in the 2nd lane blew right through all 3 crosswalks w/ full red light. I stopped in the lane and gave that driver the finger as he drove right by me. Then I crossed the center line and that is where I saw the car coming the other direction. I guess I had been watching the first bozo blow through I did not see the traffic coming in the other lane. But the middle eastern driver did not stop until all the way through the stop line and the two lines of the crosswalk. If I had stayed in the crosswalk, I would have been underneath. Then on the way back across some time later, I had to flag down one driver to get him to stop and even then, there were 3-4 other vehicles in the crosswalk zone with the light clearly red. Maybe I Need to start carrying a camera out there to shoot pictures of all these violations.
Has anyone else had issues with this death trap? At least once a week I see vehicles blowing through this crosswalk against red lights. I have contacted the city twice now in the last 2 months with no response, including informing them of the accident last night. I am basically afraid to cross that intersection any more, but since I live on the south side of Monroe and the creek trail takes off on the north side, I have no choice. Anyone have a better contact in Santa Clara to send this information to to get this dangerous situation fixed? I have tried contacting the traffic engineering dept. as well as the mayor and city council.
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 STAC - Monroe Ave crosswalk, looking east. | 118.33 KB |
4Crawler
October 12, 2012 - 1:40pm
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If anyone observes driver's
If anyone observes driver's violating the red lights at the various bike crosswalks on the STAC trail in Santa Clara, you can file a report on-line:
- http://scpd.org/index.aspx?recordid=91&page=1981
pmackay
November 8, 2012 - 9:11am
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B safe here
One suggestion is go to Santa Clara's bicycle advisory committee meeting and bring this up. They know the players very well and likely have their own insight on the matter.
My route takes me across up San Tomas X-Way crossing at Monroe, but I cross here on the way back, always waiting for traffic to flush out because the light placement isn't the greatest and the sun is setting into the drivers' eyes on this approach. (I also hit both ped and cyclist buttons as they have different delay periods). I ride on San Tomas instead of that trail segment down to Cabrillo because I think it's poorly thought out and dangerous (and slower for me), as it bends you around and drops you into a blind corner with vision obscured by the concrete barrier (meant to protect users from errant drivers I was told by Dennis Ng in Public Works).
San Tomas X-Way itself may seem scary to newer or less nervy riders, but statistics show it to be one of the safest and most-traveled routes for cyclists (believe it or not) in the county. I just wish they hadn't wasted our money by putting curbs in south of El Camino...
Ray Hosler
December 1, 2012 - 7:05pm
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Monroe and San Tomas Aquino light issues
Yes, I've seen cars drive right through on a red and I had a driver roll up to me through the stop line 20 feet back. It's a hazard requiring extreme caution. Never expect the car to stop. Never go into the street unless cars are obviously slowing down.
I think it's one of those situations where we'd be better off without a stop light and just a stop sign. Go when it's safe to go. Another oddity here: There's a stop sign at the end of the trail. I guess the light trumps the stop sign.
Allen L
December 6, 2012 - 4:03pm
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STAC Trail Monroe Bike Crossing
I use this crossing frequently and I have not seen many cars go through the red lights, although motorists stopped for the bike crossing often edge forward impatiently. That being said, I always look at the cars to make sure they are stopping before I proceed across the intersection. This can be tricky since the bike crossing does not stay green very long.
4Crawler
January 15, 2013 - 9:39am
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Yes, now that it is dark
Yes, now that it is dark during the peak rush hour commute, the driver compliance at the light seems to have improved. I still see a violation from time to time (maybe 1 in 10-20 visits) and a few weeks back saw a motorcycle cop have a car pulled over just down the road from the crosswalk, so I hope that was a red light runner that got ticketed.
I do agree that this light is worse in the summer when the setting sun washes out the traffic lights. The problem with a traffic light is that that gives the pedestrian or cycling user the impression that it is safe to cross. But there is no signage at the crosswalk to well people that the green light means it is now OK to look for a break in traffic. You get a count down number and that implies you have a limited time to cross and you had better hurry up.
And yes I do stop and wait for oncoming traffic to stop. In fact when I was hit, I looked both ways, saw it was clear, then looked back the first way and saw oncoming traffic in the center lane was not stopping, so waited for it to clear. My mistake was I then did not look back a 3rd time to see traffic coming the other way that was not stopping because I had been focused on the first violator and trying to get his attention to stop. In the mean time the count down on the light is running. And how many times do you look, each way; once, twice, three times, or in my case it should have been 4 times?
I found two interesting tidbits related to this issue. One is that reading about San Jose extending the Bay Trail in the Alviso area, they are planning to route the trail closer to the bay and crossing Zanker road up closer to the bay instead of next to 237 as it is now. They plan to NOT put a lighted crosswalk there because they say it would be "unexpected" for drivers being in the middle of a long intersection-less stretch of road. I tend to agree with that and the Monroe crossing sort of falls into that unexpected category for a driver unfamiliar with that road, as there is no road intersection there.
Then the second thing I found is that Santa Clara got some outside money to fix up the on-street portions of the STAC trail that extend from Cabrillo up through the city. As such, one of the things they are going to do is to install in-street lighting of all the crosswalks that are part of the designated bike path. I think that would really help here as I think part of the problem on Monroe is that driver's don't know where to stop. You have a total of 3 crosswalks all at odd angles and limit lines and with all those lines and suddenly seeing a red light flash on, there is likely a momentary confusion with some drivers and they may stop at the center bike crossing or at the far crosswalk where the oncoming traffic is stopped.
I'll keep filing traffic reports on this and other crosswalks in the city as I have since last fall. I may try hitting up the BPAC, but I first need to finish up with my interactions with the Mountain View BPAC and parks dept. as I can only handle one of these sorts of fights at one time. The Mountain View issue has been going on for a year now, so these things take a lot of time.
Bob Prater
February 2, 2013 - 1:48pm
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STAC Monroe Bike Crossing
I have also had near misses at this crossing. Several people have just blown the whole crossing (perhaps not looking for lights at a non-intersection?) and one stopping at the incorrect crossing. I like the in ground flashing yellow lights. They installed these on San Antonio road near the Foothill expressway after several vehicle VS pedestrians accidents. These lights get a driver's attention and knowing where to stop is easy to determine. I guess the downside is cost.
pmackay
February 4, 2013 - 7:17pm
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In-pavement Lights
This system has been shown to work well in areas of Portland where I used to live. My friend is the traffic engineer who installed them and says the costs aren't really that bad, relatively speaking. Several vendors now supply them so pricing has gotten more competitive. Here are results from installing them in Kirkland, WA: http://www.kirklandwa.gov/depart/Public_Works/Transportation___Streets/K...
Another simple solution that could be done here is to extend the crosswalk timer a little more. It seems a little short to me... anyone have an opinion on that?
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