The State of Leigh Avenue in San Jose, Campbell and Santa Clara County

For years, I lived in the Cambrian section of San Jose and attended school on that side of town. We later had to move to the other side of San Jose to a bigger house. Not wanting to change schools, we used our prior house address that we had lived in (but were now renting to another tenant) to stay at the school I was attending. Anyway, where this is going is that commute from the new house to the school took my folks and me down Leigh Avenue 5 days a week, 2 times a day.

Where to begin, Leigh Avenue from Hamilton Avenue to Dry Creek Road contains no traffic lights, 4 lanes of traffic with no center turn lane and numerous residential streets that terminate onto it with stops signs provided. This is the only form of regulation provided and that is for the side streets only, traffic on Leigh Avenue (North and Southbound) does not have any regulations at these streets.

I have seen many accidents, cars barreling quickly as they cross Leigh from one side to the other via the residential side streets, the same goes for turning left onto each of these side streets from Leigh Avenue (north or southbound) there is no control, the driver must yield to all oncoming traffic before completing the turn. This has also resulted in many accidents and is also attributed to speed of the vehicles along Leigh. Given it is a long straight stretch with no signals, people tend to go in excess of 35 MPH. It always baffled me that there could be so many blocks without a traffic signal or other form of control. I have even witnessed pedestrians and bike riders traversing across Leigh Avenue via the side streets, a often dangerous feat in of itself.

Why is there such an issue here and no form of control present, well I came upon a Mercury News article recently that is bringing attention to the need for change here. But there is one issue with this stretch, multiple entities are involved and those are the Cities of San Jose and Campbell and Santa Clara County. From what I took away from the article, it seems like there is a lack of coordination between San Jose and Campbell over proposed fixes for one intersection (Campbell Avenue at Leigh Avenue)


It seems as though both should work together to implement a similar plan to improve the intersection, further, like others have brought up in the article, it should address the need for change along the whole road, not just one intersection. If changes are put in place at Campbell Avenue, it will only shift it to other streets. Leigh is a primarily residential area yet it is treated often as a high speed corridor. Speed response signs along with more patrols were implemented long ago, but this has only helped somewhat.

Better uses such as a traffic island from Dry Creek to Hamilton should be explored, of course it will not come cheap but perhaps San Jose could partner with either Campbell or Santa Clara County to implement this. It would only allow turns at select intersections, provide a landscaped area and even a place of refuge for pedestrians if new crosswalks were installed (there currently are none along the mentioned corridor)

It's something I never gave much thought to until now with having seen the article, but it did help jog my memory of all the times we went up and down Leigh Avenue for years and having witnessed first hand the issues along the corridor.

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/08/residents-clamor-for-action-to-stop-accidents-at-leigh-campbell-intersection/

Growth around Santana Row, Valley Fair and Vicinity

I am currently researching other articles for another class and came across one for the proposed project at 350 S. Winchester Blvd., a small two story office/retail structure that is a remnant from a time when it was adjacent to a strip commercial center that was known as Town and Country Village, which most of you will know better as Santana Row. Anyway, this structure is slated to give way to what was proposed as a 25 story tower but has now been scaled back to 18 stories, none the less, it will be the tallest in the area and will combine housing, office and retail uses with parking below grade.

What strikes me about this project is that it can go multiple ways, it is nice to see a developer want to build out this property at a higher density than most are not willing to do as steel frame construction along with excavating for underground parking can get costly and most are hesitant to take this on in primarily suburban areas, which one can say the vicinity of Valley Fair/Santana Row is still suburban in nature despite the mixed use Santana Row. It could also serve as a future catalyst for higher density projects in the area under the urban village plan, this would not only apply to the Valley Fair/Santana Row area but the Winchester Blvd. area south of I-280 as that is another area prime for increased development projects as much of it is presently low-lying suburban uses and the West San Carlos Street area East of I-880.

But I do think this should be approached with caution too, building out this area away from Downtown, there is not as much of a suitable transit line in the area, buses run down Stevens Creek/San Carlos, Winchester and other adjacent streets, along with a bus transit center tucked away behind the cavernous Valley Fair property, but with buses mixed in with the traffic, will there be as much of an incentive to use transit and can uses in the area support both jobs and shopping habits to ease the need to drive distances for work or shopping? It is still very much a suburban area with a suburban and regional destination called Valley Fair, that parcels use will never change as it is successful in it's present form and brings a decent tax base to San Jose.

 However, this does open up the question too, if the City and developers want to have Valley Fair and the Urban Village plan co-exist, how can there be a balance between the two to not over burden the roads further and encourage alternative means of transportation outside of driving. Sure most will want to drive to Valley Fair, especially those that drive there from further distances to go the the mall, but if one is living in the area, how can it be better suited to not have them in the car as much? Implement dedicated BRT lanes on Stevens Creek, encourage ride sharing, further improved bike corridors and lanes to connect with transit?  It is still early in the process but these were things that came to mind for me when thinking about having a higher density project adjacent to Santana Row. Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see developers do this, but there should be caution exerted with this given the current shape of the roads and suburban nature of the area presently.

Here is the link to the cities planning page about the project as it has the more up to date information on it, reflecting the adjusted plans for the tower now being  18 stories as opposed to 25 stories.

http://www.sanjoseca.gov/index.aspx?NID=5081

It's been about a week since the Coyote Creek spilled it's banks and flooded portions of San Jose, some parts are still in the early clean up mode following the water receding and being pumped out of areas. It also notable in that also wound up flooding 101 in multiple locations (Morgan Hill was the other area where 101 flooded) Granted we do not experience flooding or excessive rain on this level all the time, it does happen in California and San Jose has flooded in the past, especially in the mid 1990s when the Guadalupe River spilled it's banks and flooded parts of Downtown.  It just took me how unprepared not only we were on the whole but how our transportation systems across the area were so impacted and led to road closures, road washouts and sinkholes. I kept wondering how come we did not have this planned out more to at least make the impact to our transportation infrastructure as great as it was, of course it is mother nature and we can't fully control it, but it does leave cause for concern with the way our infrastructure was hit from this flooding and heavy rains. 

The Future of Cambrian

This area has been an interest of mine, it was the neighborhood I grew up in and I never thought much of it during that time, the suburban design of the area. We lived off of Hillsdale Avenue, which is essentially an expressway (it is Capitol in the East and San Tomas in the West) so traffic was often at a steady flow through it at all times. The corridor is focused on the automobile as is most of the Cambrian area.

Last year, when I was looking into San Jose's urban villages, I learned that Cambrian is one of the areas identified as an urban village, notably along Hillsdale/Camden from Union Avenue to about Meridian Avenue. Within that area exists the Cambrian Park Plaza, a typical suburban strip center opened in the 1950s, again focused on the automobile. It is up for redevelopment and the developer is submitting proposals to redevelop the property. To me, this project should be phased to serve as an example of how future developments can help shape the area, bring new office, retail and housing within one area and begin to reduce the need to drive along the Hillsdale/Camden corridor, especially as the city looks to the future.

Old Rail Tunnels through the Santa Cruz Mountains

I came across this article on the mercury news site in regards to the closure of 17 when the CHP and other police were looking for the Scotts Valley Bank Robber, what caught my attention was the chance scrolling of the comments and the mention that there still were the train tunnels in the range, albeit abandoned, in disrepair and apparently being used for other uses as well.

What I wonder is why was the train lines through here closed up, would have been too much to have reformatted these tunnels to be used for modern day use by trains, before they fell into extreme disrepair from sitting abandoned. Given how Highway 17 traverses the mountain with several winding curves, it seems that train transport would be the easier way to move goods across the mountains between Santa Cruz, San Jose and beyond. Of course, it's a moot point now with the tunnels but just a thought that entered my mind, with how it would be to still have trains actively running between San Jose and Santa Crux given the crippling effect the closure of Highway 17 has on commuters and transporters.

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/02/roadshow-highway-17-hell-from-mudslides-downed-trees-to-bank-robbers/