Northern Santa Cruz Ave Segment - Safety

About this Northern Santa Cruz Information Section

The objective of this information on the northern Santa Cruz Ave corridor segment, between the "Y" and Ave Ave, is to provide a resource of knowledge and a place to promote community discussion. The content here changes and grows, based on comments and new information resoures -- It is a Work In Progress.

It is an area where more links, information, ideas, concerns, and discussions in general will be added to. There is a FAQ section to start to answer questions: If you have a question that is not listed or a concern/idea not included, please leave a "Comment" in the FAQ, or send an email to Safety@UnivPark.org.

This is an especially important section for our community, our fellow neighbors to be engaged. County has decided to exclude this segment of the corridor, 1/3 of the corridor, from any safety planning or improvements. Increasing our knowledge of the safety issues and engaing in discussion for solutions is critical to making our area safer for all, especially the residents, school children, and the families that directly use or live on this segment.

Legal and Engineering Guidelines

There are numerous areas in the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) that guide traffic engineers to create safe roadways. Recently, FHWA is promoting lower speed limits as one of many ways to improve safety *. The California Vehcile Code also provides provisions that promote lower speeds for roads like Santa Cruz Ave.

For instance, the prima facie speed limit for this particular area, according to Cal. Vehicle Code 22352 (b) is:

(b) Twenty-five miles per hour:

(1) On any highway other than a state highway, in any business or residence district unless a different speed is determined by local authority under procedures set forth in this code.

This segment of Santa Cruz Ave qualifies as a residence district under Vehicle Code 515:

A “residence district” is that portion of a highway and the property contiguous thereto, other than a business district, (a) upon one side of which highway, within a distance of a quarter of a mile, the contiguous property fronting thereon is occupied by 13 or more separate dwelling houses or business structures, or (b) upon both sides of which highway, collectively, within a distance of a quarter of a mile, the contiguous property fronting thereon is occupied by 16 or more separate dwelling houses or business structures. A residence district may be longer than one-quarter of a mile if the above ratio of separate dwelling houses or business structures to the length of the highway exists.

Additionally, guidelines state that roadways speed not be altered for short segments of roadway. The segment of Santa Cruz that is fully in the city of Menlo Park is only about 800' or so and the segment that is fully in County is also about 800'. There is a confusing section of the roadway where the east is in the city and the west is in county - that is only a few hundred feet. So with Santa Cruz Ave being 25 mph every where else and all of the roads that interect Santa Cruz being 25 mph, it seems that to follow the recommended engineering guidelines, this little segment should be consistent.

Residents in the area and cyclists that have to use sharrows (shared lane with vehicles) also know from experience that 25 mph is much safer than the higher speed limit.

* Feds Propose More mandatory Safety Tech and Lower Speeds: https://www.motortrend.com/news/us-dot-national-roadway-safety-strategy/

Frequently Asked Questions & Answers

How much would Lane change on North SCA cost?

Take current extra wide lanes to make calmer lanes w-bike lane

Before = extra wide lanes: After normal lanes w-bike

One of the major safety issues on this northern segment of Santa Cruz are the extra wide lanes that greatly add to the speeding problem. These lanes are actually wider than lanes on Hwy 101.

By reducing these lanes widths to be similar as the widths on SCA further north (towards downtown) and moving the shoulder line a foot or less, a bike lane can be added. Additionally, instead of the SB traffic lane, the up hill direction, having a shared lane with cyclists, cyclists will now have a dedicated bike lane and the sharrow will be removed from this lane.

As pointed out in other sections the cost of this imporvement is less than the cost of a non-injury accident, and obvouslly much less than an injury accident. The result will have a major impact on speed as the lanes will be narrower, at least as narrow as further north on Santa Cruz and no longer be freeway wide lanes. Narrower lanes are a major factor in reducing speed and having safer-calmer traffic flow.

Please add to the discussion by using the Comments section at the bottom of that Pro & Con page.

Why so inexpensive? The cost of this is simply the cost associated with the paint of the lanes -- relatively a very low cost. First, the current roadway is already in need of striping as the current lines are extremely faded and in dis-repair. So the normal maintence dollars can be spent to re-align the lanes to yield narrower lanes and the new bike lane. Second, the costs of restriping are one of the lower cost actions for traffic calming. The choice to paint the bike lane green would add to the cost but also add extra visiblity and safety.

What are the problems on Northern SCA?

Northern SCA Segment

The Northern Santa Cruz Ave segment of the corridor is a residental area with 2 lanes (1 each direction) and represents 1/3 of the safety study corridor. Several safety issues are documented for this segment:

Speeding is a major problem
High accident rate
Freeway width traffic lanes
No sidewalks/pathways on County portion
No bike lanes on County portion
Misaligned crosswalk at Sharon Rd & Oak Dell
Traffic volume - continuous flow

What also might be considered a problem is that County has decided to exculde this segment from safety planning and improvements.

Pros & Cons -N. SCA Lane Change

Reducing the current freeway width lanes on this segment of Santa Cruz by restriping and adjusting the shoulder line by a few inches provides both traffic calming, lower speeds, and add a bike lane for the up hill direction (south). Are there Pros vs Cons? Explore the conversation on at Northern SCA Lane Change - Pros vs Cons.

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