The five candidates competing for three open seats on the Los Altos City Council in the Nov. 5 election agreed to participate in a series of Q&As with the Town Crier highlighting key issues that may affect the city as they take the dais.
This week, incumbents Jonathan Weinberg and Sally Meadows, and challengers Ibrahim Bashir and Larry Lang addressed a question about pedestrian safety.
Question: Traffic incidents involving pedestrian safety seem to be on the increase, especially near schools. What specific strategies and resources does the city council plan to implement to address these growing public safety concerns?
Ibrahim Bashir: The city council has a critical role in supporting partners that work together to ensure pedestrian and commuter safety, including residents, administrators, parents and police. As a dad responsible for morning drop-off, I see opportunities for improvement including better signage, traffic enforcement, crossing guard hours and student education.
Larry Lang: As a city council member, I’ll prioritize school zone safety by managing speeds, improving signage, adding raised crosswalks and expanding Safe Routes to School. I’ll focus on community education and traffic enforcement, including promoting safe mobile phone use by drivers, to protect students and families on our streets.
Sally Meadows: Continue prioritizing Safe Routes to School for safest walking and biking including implementing more Complete Streets principles near schools and parks. Work with school districts to deploy crossing guards most effectively. Complete Streets Commission should assess whether adopting a Vision Zero approach would achieve our safest streets.
Jonathan Weinberg: Safe routes to school is a top priority. Our new Complete Streets Master Plan provides a roadmap to keep pedestrians and cyclists safe from vehicles. The city must actively enforce safety laws and we must partner with schools to educate the community (on) how to be safe motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.
There was no response from candidate Eric Steinle to this question.
