Politics & Government

Highway 9 Safety Upgrades at Austin Way in Monte Sereno Unveiled

Median barriers in center of highway and westward onto off street make turning safer for bicyclists and cars.

As cars zoomed by Highway 9 in front of Austin Way, leaders from Los Gatos, Saratoga and Monte Sereno celebrated Friday the completion of the third phase of improvements to the dangerous thoroughfare.

The safety upgrades consist of installing medians in the middle of the highway as well as westward toward Austin Way, a small off-road street easily missed by visitors and out-of-town residents.

The two concrete stone-filled medians, both in the center of the now 45-mile-per-hour highway and west onto the street, are helping motorists correctly enter Austin Way. The barriers prevent close turns that have sometimes left pedestrians, bicyclists and ultimately cars compromised.

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The upgrades at the intersection, located next to the La Hacienda Inn in Monte Sereno, started early this year, and also include a small bike lane at Los Gatos Boulevard and Highway 9 and bicycle detection at the intersection.

Saratoga Mayor Chuck Page praised the three municipalities for working together to secure funding for the upgrades, as well as their design and management. There are a total of four phases to the project.

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"This phase was really intended to make this stretch of road safer, especially for bicyclists," Page said. "It was a very wide intersection, which we've now condensed with the medians."

Monte Sereno resident Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, called the project a great example of collaboration between the three communities.

Guardino recalled when he was first appointed to the California Transportation Commission he found roughly $500,000 from 1992 Proposition 116 funds, which were about to expire. The Clean Air and Transportation Improvement Act of 1990, therefore, helped fund the majority of the upgrades at the intersection.

Guardino said he reached out to the three towns and the Valley Transportation Authority and $460,000 was brought to the table. Each town contributed between $15,000 and $20,000 to "save lives."

"Why? This was identified as the sixth most dangerous intersection in all of Silicon Valley for bicyclists and pedestrians ... That's not what we want to be known for," Guardino said.

Ultimately, Page noted, the upgrades will also include a pedestrian path that will go from Saratoga to Los Gatos. The Austin Way improvements cost $550,000, a large portion brought with the help of Guardino.

"No matter how safe you try to make a road, when you got pedestrians, bicyclists and motor vehicles running together, it's still not safe," Page said.

To illustrate his point, Page said a month ago a Saratoga City worker was riding her bicycle along the highway and while attempting to make a u-turn at the intersection, was hit by a car turning in the same direction as she was.

Los Gatos Town Council member and former mayor Joe Pirzynski said he was pleased with this part of the project. "This was no man's land. The way they've constrained the vehicle traffic, the new planted area ... it's going to be much better than it was."

Pirzynksi said when he and other leaders visited the intersection to announce the upgrades more than a year ago, Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Chief Scott Seaman was riding down Highway 9 and almost got hit by a car for that event. "There's no absolutely safe street, no matter what we do. This improves, but it doesn't guarantee," Pirzynski said.

The improvements looked to be working. Cars on Friday were slowing down and driving all the way to the end of the median to turn onto Austin Way, whereas before they would cut through, turning west, endangering those traveling down the highway. "The downhill slope makes people pick up speed," he lamented.

Saratoga Council member Howard Miller described the highway and the street as crossing at sharp angles. "This became the most ridiculously unsafe intersection in Silicon Valley, but it was so obvious to be out here. If you lived in these neighborhoods, you wouldn't even come out this way because it was so bad."

Miller was ecstatic about the improvements: "This has been a longtime coming, and it's unfortunate that it took so long, but they did a good job ... We've known for 20 years that we needed to do something here."

Similarly, Saratoga Council member Manny Cappello, who served on an ad-hoc committee from the three communities to improve the highway, said the unveiling of the medians was "a proud moment."


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