August 1, 1997

 

Work Plans for Three Traffic Study Issues for Mary Avenue, Homestead Road, and Central Expressway On-Ramp, RTC 97-368

 

Report In Brief

Traffic Engineering staff have initiated work on three traffic studies that the City Council approved as 1997 study issues. These study issues call for the preparation of work plans in 1997 for two of the studies, and completion of a study for the third. This report presents work plans and revised schedules for all three studies. Staff recommends approval of the work plans and revised schedules.

Background

As part of its legislative calendar for 1997, the City Council approved the preparation of three studies of particular traffic issues in Sunnyvale. These issues are as follows::

  1. Mary Avenue. At the request of the Bicycle Advocacy committee (BAC), staff is investigating the feasibility of reducing the number of lanes on Mary Avenue from four to three (two through lanes and one two-way center turn lane) between Fremont Avenue and Homestead Road to add bicycle lanes in each direction.
  1. Homestead Road. Parking restrictions currently provide bike lanes westbound on Homestead Road between the hours of 7:00 AM and 5:00 PM. The BAC has requested that staff study the feasibility of modifying the number of hours the bike lane is available for cyclists.
  1. Central Expressway On-ramp. Staff is currently investigating the traffic impacts of closing the California Avenue on-ramp to eastbound Central Expressway at the request of the residents of Victory Village.

 

The legislative calendar calls for work plans to be prepared for the Mary Avenue and Homestead Road study issues by September 23rd and October 21st respectively. A completed study issue on the Central Expressway on-ramp issue is currently scheduled to be presented at the October 28th meeting. Traffic Engineering staff are encountering a substantially greater workload in 1997 due to several study issue approvals, capital projects, and transportation studies associated with local development and regional growth. To assist staff in completing the above and other study issues, the City Council approved at its July 22nd meeting the retaining of a transportation consultant.

Discussion

Since the July 22 meeting Traffic Engineering staff have hired Barton-Aschman Associates to provide consulting assistance. Staff and the consultant have prepared work plans for the three studies in question (Attachments 1-3). At this time staff is requesting the City Council's approval of modified schedules for completion of the studies. These schedule modifications effectively move up the approval of work plans for the Mary Avenue and Homestead Road study issues, and consequently also advance the completion dates for these studies. Staff is requesting that the completion date for the Central Expressway item be pushed back to allow for a more comprehensive public input process.

Currently City staff and the consultant are currently working to collect the necessary data and notify the affected parties for all three studies. Upon completion of the data collection and analysis, meetings will be scheduled and attended with the public. Pending input from the public and other affected jurisdictions, separate reports will be submitted for each study and recommendations will be made. As noted in the attached work plans, staff requests that these study issues be placed on the Council's legislative calendar for the following dates:

  1. Mary Avenue - January 13, 1998
  2. Homestead Road - January 20, 1998
  3. Central Expressway on-ramp - March 3, 1998

Although the technical portion of the Central Expressway study could be completed by the October 28 deadline, staff recommends extending the submittal of the final Report to Council in order to allow a more comprehensive public input phase and to provide sufficient time to respond to various neighborhood issues and receive a formal response from the County of Santa Clara.

Fiscal Impact

There is no fiscal impact from the change in legislative scheduling. Funds have been approved previously by the City Council for consulting assistance on these three projects.

Public Contact

The public will be notified through a variety of ways for all three Projects. Mailing lists have been compiled for the residents on Mary Avenue, Homestead Road, and Victory Village. To date, each affected residence and property owner has been mailed a letter notifying them that a study is underway. When the data analysis has been completed, another letter will be sent to schedule meetings with residents and address the local concerns for each project. Meetings will also be scheduled with the BAC for the Mary Avenue and Homestead Road studies. In addition to the mailings, signs will be placed on Mary Avenue and California Avenue to alert motorists that studies are being undertaken. Further attempts to notify the public will be made through articles in the Sunnyvale Quarterly Report, Sunnyvale Sun, and the San Jose Mercury News.

This agenda item has been publicly noticed by posting of the Council agenda.

 

Alternatives

  1. Accept the work plans for the Homestead Road, Mary Avenue, and Central Expressway On-ramp study issues as submitted and approve a change in the Council legislative calendar to eliminate currently scheduled presentations of work plans, delay the presentation of the final Central Expressway On-ramp study issue, and advance the schedule for final presentations of the Mary Avenue and Homestead Road study issues.
  1. Make changes to the work plans.
  1. Do not accept the work plans as submitted and continue with the current legislative schedule. This will postpone completion of the Homestead and Mary Avenue issues and necessitate a reduced-scope public input process for the Central Expressway issue.

 

Recommendations

Staff recommends alternative 1.

 

 

__________________________
Jack Witthaus
Transportation Planner

 

__________________________
Ray C. Williamson
City Traffic Engineer

 

__________________________
Robert S. La Sala
City Manager

 

__________________________
Marvin A. Rose
Director of Public Works

 

Appendix:

Attachment 1: Work Plan for Mary Avenue

Attachment 2: Work Plan for Homestead Road

Attachment 3: Work Plan for Central Expressway On-ramp

 

Mary Avenue

Mary Avenue is currently a four lane arterial with homes along both sides between its intersections with Fremont Avenue to the north and Homestead road to the South . The BAC has requested the city study the feasibility of adding bike lanes on Mary Avenue between Fremont Road and Homestead Road; this would require reducing the number of lanes on Mary Avenue to three (one lane northbound ,one lane southbound, and one two-way center turn lane). Generally, signalized intersections are the limiting factor when defining the roadways capacity. There are two signalized intersections on Mary Avenue at the cross streets of The Dallas Avenue and Cascade Drive. Traffic counts are currently being conducted to determine the existing volume of traffic at the above mentioned intersections during their peak hours of operation. Upon completion of the data collection, level of service calculations will be performed to determine the roadways existing capacity as well at its projected capacity when reduced to two through lanes. The reduction of lanes on Mary Avenue may also affect a drivers ability to find "gaps" in traffic from which to pull in and out of their driveways.

 

California Avenue

At the request of the residents of Victory Village, staff has recently begun to study the feasibility of closing the California Avenue on-ramp to eastbound Central Expressway. California Avenue is one-way eastbound adjacent to the Central Expressway on-ramp. Residents have raised safety concerns regarding vehicles adjacent to their homes accelerating at high speeds to merge with Central Expressway traffic . To date, staff is currently working to collect traffic counts at selected study intersections. The residents of Victory Village have also been notified by mail that this study is underway. Once the data collection has been completed, level of service calculations will be performed to determine the ramp closure's impact on the surrounding roadway network. A queuing analysis will also be performed to determine whether the selected intersections will have adequate left-turn pocket storage under ramp closure conditions.

 

Homestead Road

Homestead Road currently provides westbound bike lanes during the hours of 7:00 AM and 5:00 PM. During the remaining hours, the bike lane is used for parking by local residents. The BAC has requested that a study be conducted to determine feasibility of extending the hours of the westbound bike lane between Lawrence Expressway and Highway 85. Although Homestead road is jointly owned by the municipalities of Santa Clara and Cupertino, the restricted hours of the bike lane only occur within the city limits of Sunnyvale. Parking counts are currently being conducted along Homestead Road to determine the existing parking demand.