What’s wrong with the pedestrian signal at this intersection? Roadshow
Plus: Here's the anti-dive-bomber strategy in the Washington, D.C., area.
Q: The signals at the corner of Blossom Hill and Santa Cruz Avenue in Los Gatos do not have a pedestrian sign. I waited through five cycles and finally had to cross when the signal turned red. This has been going on for over three weeks. Who do I notify to get it fixed?
Also: I have recently seen several license plates starting with 8X. I assume this means we will be turning to 9 around the first of the year. At that time will you once again give us the update on how many cars were sold during the 8s and how long it actually took to go through the 8s?
Marlene Burak, Los Gatos
A: The signals have been fixed.
As for your second question, the 8 series plates — license plates that start with the number 8 — started circulating mid-July of 2017 and depletion is estimated for January 2022. Then the 9 series will appear on vehicles. A current estimate is that it takes about 4½ years to get through the full sequence of license plate numbers in a series.
Q: The cul-de-sac I live on in Almaden Valley has had work done on it by the Cable Guys, PG&E, the Water Company, and different City of San José agencies—not necessarily in that order. Each entity patched up its after its digging work was completed. So, today the cul-de-sac looks like a quilt, albeit with the dull gray and black of concrete and asphalt! One agency even went so far as to install about 20 yellow meaningless Bott’s dots that lead to nowhere!
Additionally, many major streets—Almaden Expressway, McAbee, Meridian Avenue, Camden Avenue—seem to be under never-ending roadwork, including upgrading existing handicap access on sidewalks. Was the latter done to meet new ADA requirements?
Will someone from the nation’s 10th largest city ever fix my neighborhood?
M. R. Pamidi, San Jose
A: For your first question, yes, the handicap access upgrades were due to new ADA requirements. As for your second, it’s going to take a while to get everything done, but these are on the list of projects to be finished, most likely next year.
Q: Just a quick note about the suggestion about barriers and pylons to discourage “dive bombers.” Take a look at I-270 in Maryland from I-495 (DC’s Beltway) heading north, from Bethesda toward Frederick. Decades ago “collector-distributor” lanes were added, and they served a number of purposes, including smoothing the traffic flow and discouraging what are called dive bombers here. It seems to work quite well.
Anonymous
A: That’s a good point. We use auxiliary lanes here, lanes that lead to the next off-ramp and are a favorite of many drivers.
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