Site visitors security enhancements meant to guard San Jose and Los Gatos could have truly made biking on a busy highway extra harmful, bicycle riders stated.
San Jose transportation division employees not too long ago added plastic obstacles often called “bollards” alongside Los Gatos Almaden Street to defend cyclists within the bike lane from reckless drivers. Metropolis leaders made the choice so as to add them after approving the Metropolis Higher Bike Plan 2025, which activated the highway as a protected bike lane. However after bicycle owner Alayne Yellum stated a car struck her husband, Don Yellum, in July, she questions whether or not the plastic obstacles are partly accountable.
Her husband has made a full restoration, however Alayne stated the bollards are too excessive and create a blind spot for distracted drivers.
“The idea behind the bollards is to get you to slow down, look over your shoulder and then make your right hand turn. Well, we all know some people just don’t slow down,” she advised San José Highlight. “They don’t look for bikes.”
Transportation division workers plan to attach with college students at Union Center and Leigh Excessive faculties to coach them on tips on how to navigate the intersection. As a part of outreach effort, transportation officers shared flyers selling San Jose’s initiative aimed toward reaching zero visitors fatalities.
“It’s not really a safe intersection for cyclists or pedestrians, especially kids when they’re going to and from school,” Don Yellum advised San José Highlight. “Shouldn’t the sign be 20 or 30 yards away to alert drivers?”
A area investigation decided the prevailing signal is enough, transportation officers stated.
“We received reports of vehicles driving between the delineators to make the right turn from eastbound Los Gatos Almaden to southbound Union to attempt to bypass cars lined up at the signal,” metropolis transportation spokesperson Colin Heyne advised San José Highlight. “Based on this information, extra bollards were added approaching the intersection.”
The bollards alongside Los Gatos Almaden Street goal to decelerate drivers and supply a barrier defending the bike lane, Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition Deputy Director Deanna Chevas stated.
The protected bike lane on Los Gatos Almaden Street. (Vicente Vera/San José Highlight)
Nonetheless, town’s bicycle security efforts haven’t been sufficient to mitigate the excessive ranges of distracted driving and rushing in recent times, she added. San Jose noticed its highest charge of visitors fatalities in current historical past in 2022 with 65 reported deaths. That quantity dropped to 49 final 12 months, in line with the Imaginative and prescient Zero activity drive.
“San Jose’s (Department of Transportation) has also run a communication campaign to inform drivers of how easily they can influence street safety by slowing down and being watchful. Perhaps more driver education and enforcement are needed to change driver behavior,” Chevas advised San José Highlight.
Alayne Yellum stated she’s grateful metropolis transportation officers adopted up with security enhancements. However she fears different cyclists would possibly get injured the way in which her husband did if the 3-foot-tall bollards stay.
“I just don’t go that way anymore. I completely avoid the corner,” she advised San José Highlight.
This story initially appeared in San José Highlight.
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