San Jose wants to widen roads — for “safety”

This has been a grim year for pedestrians in San Jose, with 23 fatalities (thus far). But San Jose leaders have come up with a brilliant solution: widen roadways and speed up the traffic!

Officials in San Jose think a possible solution to the recent uptick in fatal pedestrian deaths plaguing the city could be to widen the roads at a couple of traffic trouble spots.

The plan involves a land swap that will allow officials to widen Branham Road and Snell Avenue, two of the most problematic streets in the city. San Jose plans to use the strips to widen Branham and Snell. Right now, the roadway narrows down and forces cars to merge within a short distance.

This project will widen a 2-lane road into 4-lane, with medians along with new signals. This will greatly speed up traffic, leading to more death and destruction. It is crazy they call it a pedestrian safety project.

In a 2017 memo, Councilmember Khamis called this a “Green” infrastructure project, and proposed taking $2 million out of the Essential Services Fund to help pay for it.

Branham Ln current configuration

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N. Berkeley BART neighborhood is not a “historically low-income community”

Now that Senator Wiener has re-introduced a watered-down housing bill, what are the chances the Nimbys get on-board? Not likely, to judge from these insane comments from Berkeley Mayor Arreguin:

In Berkeley the low-density residential neighborhood immediately around North Berkeley BART would automatically be up-zoned resulting in heights of up to 55 feet. This will create pressure on existing neighborhoods and will result in land speculation. There are historically low-income communities which do not meet the definition of “Sensitive Communities” who will face increased gentrification and displacement.

Ah yes, the millionaire slums of N. Berkeley…

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Not the Onion

The LAPD is finally getting serious about this Vision Zero thing….by handing out free hiviz vests and LED lights to pedestrians:

The department is working with State Farm to hand out roughly 1,200 vests and 700 lights in an effort to reduce pedestrian deaths on city streets, which are among the deadliest in the nation.

Speaking at a press conference on Nov. 28, Moore said the vests will “give a fighting chance for (pedestrians) to be seen and observed and to protect themselves,” especially when walking at night.

“We have defensive driving, there’s defensive walking as well,” he said.

This initiative comes at the same time Los Angeles is raising speed limits on 100+ miles of streets.

 

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