A dilemma over state law and varying speed limits posted on Springer Road, a stretch of which is in Los Altos and a stretch of which is in Mountain View, has left the Los Altos City Council with its collective hands tied.
As residents voiced strong concerns about pedestrians’ and bikers’ safety on the well-traveled thoroughfare, Los Altos Mayor Ron Packard was adamant at the July 11 council meeting that there was little the city or traffic commission could do to enforce safer and lower speeds.
“We have a dilemma. The state vehicle code says that if the average traffic speed is such and such, you cannot enforce that speed by radar if you set the speed limit below that threshold,” Packard said. But at 35 mph, the speed limit on the portion of Springer between Cuesta Drive and El Monte Avenue in Mountain View is particularly dangerous, said several residents.
The California state law – originally developed to deter speed traps on rural roads – is a guideline that serves to help city traffic engineers define speed limits. However, if limits are set below the speed driven by 85 percent of the users, the courts will not enforce speeding tickets, which are based on radar. Only after “pacing” – following the car for approximately two miles – can officers issue a penalty. Few people, a resident pointed out, would continue to speed for two miles if they noticed a police car trailing them.
Los Altos resident Randall Hull was incredulous that speeding tickets could not be upheld at the current 35 mph speed limit on the Mountain View stretch of Springer Road. Dangerous drivers, he said, going well over 40 mph and even as fast as 55 mph were skewing the mean speeds and making it hard to bring the 85th percentile defining rule down.
“It seems to me that allowing drivers to define what is a prudent speed to drive is like letting the foxes define what is prudent behavior in the hen house,” Hull said.
“We haven’t justified what doesn’t make sense. I believe we need the tools necessary to enforce the speeds we currently have,” Casas said. He voted with the four other councilmembers to accept the recommendation to traffic engineers to maintain speeds on the Los Altos stretch of the road at the current 30 mph and the Mountain View stretch at 35 mph. Casas recommended working with Mountain View leaders and researching traffic-calming devices like speed bumps and signs to quell the problem temporarily.
At the meeting, several residents criticized prior councilmembers for not directing the traffic commission to conduct a speed survey when the speed limit was set at 25 mph on Springer Road in Los Altos.
David Riola, a resident of Springer Road, has been a longtime proponent of lowering speeds on the road, which he said presents a risk to the whole community.
“Do the experiment you promised to do. Let’s go wherever the data takes us,” he said.
In September 2005, the council approved an increase of the speed limit on Springer Road from 25 mph to 30 mph between Foothill Expressway and El Monte Avenue.
