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After years of referring to the same figures, Mountain View has updated its traffic collision data to get a better handle on how to improve road safety for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists in the city.
New data shows that Castro Street has gotten safer for pedestrians, but Latham Street is looking more dangerous, with several crashes reported between the years 2020 and 2022, according to a report presented to the City Council on Sept. 10.
Up until recently, the city has been analyzing traffic collisions from 2014 to 2019. The expanded data set will help inform the city’s traffic safety projects and programs, as part of its Vision Zero policy to eliminate all traffic fatalities by 2030.
Between 2014 and 2022, there were 23 traffic fatalities and 111 severe injury collisions in Mountain View, excluding railway crossings and state freeways. Of these, 7 traffic fatalities and 47 severe injury collisions happened between 2020 and 2022.
Adding in the more recent crashes did not result in any changes to the city’s high-injury network, which refers to areas where the highest number of fatality and serious injury crashes occur. This includes city streets like Rengstorff Avenue, Shoreline Boulevard, Middlefield Road and California Street as well as El Camino Real and Central Expressway.
While there were no changes to the high-injury network, the expanded data set still provided some key takeaways. In the past, Castro Street, north and south of El Camino Real, had been identified as an area with a high rate of collisions involving pedestrians. It is no longer a high-crash corridor, according to the report.
The report attributed the decrease in crashes to protected bikeways on Castro Street, between El Camino Real and Miramonte Avenue, as well as to the closure of the pedestrian mall to vehicles.
Meanwhile, several crashes on Latham Street that occurred between 2020 and 2022 has led to its identification as a high-crash corridor, although it still falls below the high-injury network threshold, the report said.
Since then, Mountain View has implemented many traffic-calming measures on Latham Street. The report described new school markings and signage near Castro and Mistral elementary schools and the installation of high-visibility crosswalks, speed-bumps and a stop-controlled intersection on other parts of the street. More signalized intersections also are planned for Latham Street in 2025, according to the report.
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Kind of funny how I heard at a neighborhood meeting from the chief that the police are writing 60% fewer traffic citations. I wonder if there is a coincidence.
They’re too busy eating donuts. I see highly reckless behavior from drivers all the time but I see someone ticketed in problem corridors less than once a year.
A bit of a miss from Emily to not ask the police how many tickets they are writing. It’s in their annual report.