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The city of Mountain View is moving ahead with plans to add 21-foot-wide crosswalks to two major intersections downtown – an undertaking that aims to improve continuity for pedestrians walking along Castro Street.
In a 6-0 vote, with John McAlister absent, the City Council unanimously approved a design concept at a March 10 meeting that would add large, central crosswalks at the Villa and Dana street intersections, as well as new traffic signals and pedestrian push buttons. The vote was taken as part of the council’s consent agenda, which contains routine items intended to be approved in a single vote.
Mountain View closed three blocks of Castro Street, from California Street to West Evelyn Avenue, to car traffic during the pandemic to make room for outdoor dining. Though this change was initially intended to be temporary, the city has since taken steps to make it permanent, including adding striping down the middle of the street and decorative fencing around the seating areas.
Currently, people walking down the middle of Castro Street need to move over to a sidewalk in order to cross at both intersections. The planned central crosswalks would allow community members to remain in the middle of the closed off road.
Now that the City Council has given the green light to pursue the project, final designs are expected to be complete this fall and construction is anticipated to begin early next year, according to a staff report. The changes to the Dana and Villa street intersections are projected to cost about $3.5 million, city spokesperson Lenka Wright said.
The central crosswalks make up the first phase of a larger city initiative to improve downtown intersections. The City Council decided in October 2024 to delay improvements at the California Street intersection to a second phase because of funding constraints.
Once plans for Villa and Dana streets are finalized and construction funding has been secured, the city plans to modernize the traffic roundabout at California Street, the staff report said.
Glad to see this will finally be happening, even if it takes a year. Should have been part of the original plan but seems every step of the way is tentative and the next step isn’t thought about until the previous one is complete.
$3.5M
Two crosswalks so people don’t have to walk 10 feet further.
Does the term drunken sailor come to mind?
This has got to stop.
Fantastic news! Great way to spend $3.5M of taxpayer money! I cannot wait to save 0.05 minutes while crossing the street.
This is craziness: a solution in search of a problem. I walk down Castro street weekly and have yet to feel encumbered having to retreat to the sidewalk to cross the street. The Voice keeps publishing stories about how MV doesn’t have money to do this or that, but we can afford $3.5 million for this?! Wow!!!