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Family members, neighbors and cycling advocates are demanding new safety measures at an intersection where a pedestrian was killed last month.
The victim, 54-year-old Michelle Montalvo of Los Altos, died on Oct. 22 after being hit by an SUV heading northbound on El Monte Avenue near Marich Way. Montalvo was crossing the street in a marked crosswalk, but she was apparently not seen by the SUV driver, whose name has not been released by police. It was the seventh fatal traffic accident this year in Mountain View, and the sixth on city streets.
Several members of the Montalvo family rallied at a Wednesday meeting of the city’s Bike/Pedestrian Advisory Committee to urge Mountain View officials to make safety upgrades a priority at the intersection.
The victim’s sister, Delia Montalvo, struggled to hold back sobs as she described being with her sister at the time of the crash and seeing the impact.
“There were no brake lights, no tires screeching, just a (crash),” she said. “This death was my sister, and it’s just not right.”
Local police are still investigating the incident. Montalvo and others described the problem as a combination of careless drivers taking shortcuts through neighborhoods and a lack of visibility along many routes.
Police officials at the meeting indicated there was evidence that drivers were taking risks at that location. There’s no traffic signal at the intersection and vehicles traveling on El Monte do not have a stop sign. One officer reported that a recent observation showed about one-sixth of vehicles on El Monte driving over the 35 mph limit. One vehicle they logged at traveling about 20 mph over the limit.
But the city had already posted warnings at that location to caution drivers to slow down. In 2012, the city installed signs to warn motorists about pedestrian crossings. More signs along the street were added one year later.
The Montalvo family and others at the meeting urged Mountain View officials to install a stoplight at the intersection, but city staff warned that project would take some time.
An independent traffic engineering firm would study the intersection for possible safety improvements, which will take about two months, said Public Works Director Mike Fuller. A formal proposal for a new traffic signal could be added to the city’s budget for the next fiscal year, he said. Once that is done, the city could pay to manufacture the signal pole and ask PG&E to install it. In total, that process could take up to 18 months, Fuller warned.
The actual installation of a new traffic signal is relatively simple, but the city is obligated to go through a slow, deliberate process, Fuller said.
“We have a public contract code and we have to go through a certain approval process for our City Council to fund these things,” he said.
The Montalvo family and other speakers urged city officials to add safety upgrades in the meantime, such as a stop sign. That would be studied, Fuller said, but he cautioned that a poorly planned stop sign could make the situation worse by giving people a false sense of security.
“If it’s an environment where people aren’t expecting a stop sign, people could run the stop,” he said. “There’s a reason why you don’t usually see stop signs on four-lane roadways.”
For that matter, a traffic signal is not a surefire safety upgrade. In February, a 68-year-old Los Altos man was killed while crossing at a signaled stop at Charleston Road, when he was hit by a car making a left turn. The city later tweaked that traffic signal to no longer allow drivers to make a left turn while pedestrians are crossing.
City officials at the meeting pondered whether the real problem is a matter of too many users sharing the streets. Members of the Bike/Pedestrian committee asked city staff to look into a “road diet,” reducing the number of traffic lanes along El Monte and nearby Springer Street. Fuller promised that staff would look into that idea.
This is a congested area with lots of pedestrians. Clearly, the car speeds are too high on this street right now. Speed limit signs don’t make enough drivers slow down to safe speeds. The city needs to take more active measures like making the lanes narrower and installing more stop lights.
A truly horrific fatal accident, any of us could as easily have been the victim. But the penultimate paragraph raises maybe the most disturbing message: even stoplights (not just stop signs) aren’t preventing fatal pedestrian collisions.
From all the reports of this accident, including this article’s, an SUV driver ran right into poor Ms. Montalvo in a crosswalk at full speed, not braking before the impact. I’m not sure what kind of physical intersection changes can possibly protect people from drivers who fail to notice pedestrians in their path.
Traffic engineering studies show that a pedestrian is much more visible to cars driving at 25 mph vs 45 mph. Drivers have more time to see what is in front of them and also pay attention to a wider width of the road. Also, a pedestrian is much more likely to survive being hit at 25 mph vs 45 mph (10 times more likely to survive). The solution is to slow down traffic on these streets to give pedestrians a chance. This is a congested city street, not a freeway.
“Montalvo and others described the problem as…drivers taking shortcuts through neighborhoods”
How is it a ‘shortcut’ if there is no other route? San Antonio, El Monte, Springer, Miramonte, Grant…every North-South route through Los Altos is a residential street with houses on it.
I guess people need to be alert, for fast moving cars aimed directly at them. And if nothing else, run for safety.
I live in the neighborhood around where this incident took place. It has become nearly impossible to cross El Monte because of the high rate of speed that a lot of cars are traveling. I also think that because of the congestion, the number of bicyclists, and pedestrians, and the number of cars using El Monte to and from El Camino, the posted speed limit is too high to be safe for all those in the area. Perhaps one of those blinking crosswalks at that location would be appropriate and prudent. The intersection with Springer Road at the stop sign is also a trouble spot. My daughter has become afraid to ride her bike to Los Altos High School because she needs to cross El Monte. I’m not sure how we get people to slow down in their cars absent police traffic enforcement.
I’m all for improving safety. But let’s not succumb to the solution of adding a stop light every time there’s an accident somewhere. Traffic flow is already congested in that area. Cars coming from El Camino have just gone through 3 lighted intersections in about a 200 yard stretch (see frustration below).
Here are alternate proposals for improved safety:
– Flashing lights at the crosswalk
– Reposition that crosswalk so it’s a bit further from El Camino…more time for cars to focus on what’s happening on El Monte (after dealing with the traffic light they just passed through)
– A less ambiguous light just after El Camino exits onto El Monte. Sometimes it’s flashing; sometimes it’s red. Some know the laws, but it’s confusing to others. And pedestrians at the crosswalk can’t “trust” what going to happen at that intersection.
– Enforcement of speeding. Or just have a visible police car (as opposed to a hidden one) occasionally in that area.
It’s also possible for pedestrians to walk +/- 100 paces in either direction and either cross at the stop sign at Springer or the light at El Camino/El Monte.
Unfortunately, speeding on these streets is also linked to congestion on El Camino. Drivers become so frustrated about how long things take on El Camino that they mindlessly speed through other neighborhoods as soon as they “escape” El Camino…just another reason to lobby against BRT lane closures.
I drive through here 4 or 5 times a week. How about a speed hump to slow traffic as well as a button for pedestrians to turn on flashing lights in the roadway.
That driver should, at a minimum, permanently lose his/her drivers license.
I was astonished to hear that a stop sign might give people a false sense of security! If this represents the quality of competence of Mtn View’s engineering staff than there is a huge problem.
Sure, cars drive right through stop signs and red lights. I was broadsided in an intersection in Cupertino by a driver who didn’t even slow down, not to mention stop, when confronted by a red light. She told the Police that she was visitng from Nevada and didn’t know there was a stop light there! But at least we should all TRY to protect people foolish enough (?) to actually walk on our streets. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
Mentioning the death at Charleston is actually very stupid. The accident was caused by the lack of any sensible design and/or planning when “improving” the intersection after building a small shopping center there on an extremely busy street which has built-in hazards (neglected by the City) – i.e. a trench like driveway which leads up to the heavily crested main street. With people crossing Charleston often to Chipotle and the other stores, and traffic crossing Charleston in a very messy left turn, right turn, or straight ahead situation. Someone really caused this manslaughter by not properly fulfilling his/her job requirements to foreseen problems. Same thing on El Monte I believe…and to attempt to defend that failure is absolutely absurd. We need to have better people working on these problems!
“Local police are still investigating the incident. Montalvo and others described the problem as a combination of careless drivers taking shortcuts through neighborhoods and a lack of visibility along many routes.”
Duh!!! MV City Council’s criminally irresponsible decision to turn MV into a high rise apartment ghetto is responsible for accidents like this. These are not “careless drivers”. These are commuter drivers who need to get to work on time by avoiding traffic jams on major thoroughfares like El Camino, San Antonio, Shoreline, and Grant Road.
Also, Mountain View has adopted an incredibly stupid & dangerous policy of putting crosswalks across major streets in unexpected locations where there are no stop signs or stop lights. I blame the City Council for gross traffic ignorance and charge them with a legal term charge I have invented; “idealistic & grossly irresponsible negligence”. This death could easily have been avoided if the only crosswalk were at the stoplight at El Monte and El Camino Real. Sure, it’s a longer walk, but the light already is there and drivers expect to see pedestrians in the crosswalk.
Duh, City Council! All it takes is common sense and intelligence, not blind bias toward pedestrians and cyclists. Cars rule the roads. Every City Council member should write that 100 times on a blackboard while being videoed for youtube videos.
“All it takes is common sense and intelligence, not blind bias toward pedestrians and cyclists. Cars rule the roads.”
Which is why you should stay out of one — because you plainly are a danger to everyone around you.
“This death could easily have been avoided if the only crosswalk were at the stoplight at El Monte and El Camino Real. Sure, it’s a longer walk, but the light already is there and drivers expect to see pedestrians in the crosswalk.”
Which only tells us that you have no idea what you’re talking about — or that you’ve never been in the area.
Remove the crosswalk entirely
It’s a ridiculous placement for a crosswalk, it’s at a ‘junction’ where the road starts to curve thereby impacting visibility for both cars and pedestrians. And it’s just what, about 200 feet from the major intersection of El Monte and El Camino. Why not just use that one? And extra 1 minute walking if that?
It’s not rocket science people. We can’t put a crosswalk at every point people want to cross particularly on busy streets such as El Monte. Let’s use some common sense here, not spend thousands of dollars, endless project studies and “slow deliberate procecees”. There does not need to be a crossing there. Use the budget for our schools, better bike lanes etc
Remove the crosswalk. Use the one already existing at ECR and El Monte.
“Remove the crosswalk entirely..It’s a ridiculous placement for a crosswalk, it’s at a ‘junction’ where the road starts to curve thereby impacting visibility for both cars and pedestrians.”
ONLY if you’re going above the speed limit (which many so-called drivers do in that area). Otherwise? Not a problem.
What IS a problem is the speed freaks that can’t bring themselves to stick to the posted speed limits, and place everyone in the area at risk.
but honestly, why does there need to be one there? Why can’t people just cross at the major intersection at ECR or the other side at Springer? It is NOT that far either way!
And I disagree with the speeding part of your comment. I drive carefully and at the speed limit at this intersection specifically because it is in a very odd location and not expected after turning on to El Monte from ECR. Years of driving this and I still catch myself thinking what a weird placement
Speed humps-YES! I will endorse GDM’s suggestion, especially between ECR and the Marich/El Monte intersection in question.. The trouble is, they would be in a Commercial stretch of El Monte, and their placement might produce friction between those affected merchants and The City of MV. Here, the safety of pedestrians/cyclists should take precedent; the merchants are long-term establishments with only minor concern for reduced traffic due to speed bumps. The slowed traffic should actually improve access and impulse buying.
OK, the red tape involved in delaying installation of traffic signals would not necessarily be a factor in setting up strategically placed speed bumps. They are a common ‘feature’ on Almond and Clark, so their use isn’t novel, applied in support of local schools. The same support should be granted to pedestrian traffic in the ElMonte/Marich/Ednamary residential area, for those who choose to forgo vehicles. (Note!)
In the near future, the huge housing development across our vaunted ECR can only worsen our traffic/pedestrian issues. Our present problems are bound to become more complex- time for some futuristic thought to assure an optimum future.
“Why can’t people just cross at the major intersection at ECR or the other side at Springer? It is NOT that far either way!”
Maybe for you, it isn’t. For other people? Not so much. Take that into consideration.
“I drive carefully and at the speed limit at this intersection specifically because it is in a very odd location and not expected after turning on to El Monte from ECR. Years of driving this and I still catch myself thinking what a weird placement”
Which only says that you are not as careful as you could — or SHOULD — be.
I don’t live here, but I drive here, and it can be terrifying. Really, speed humps are the most effective and least expensive solution to these types of scofflaw speeding issues. People run lights and signs, flashing crosswalk bulbs burn out (just look at Fabian in Palo Alto) or the button circuits fail, but speed humps pretty much get everyone’s attention, particularly at times of day when the sun is in a driver’s eyes or pedestians are invisible against a backdrop of foliage.
I think pedestrians need to be more responsible for their own well-being. I’ve seen person after person step off the sidewalk and into a cross walk, WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING to see if a car is coming or if an oncoming car sees them! I’ve seen them walking the whole length of a crosswalk texting or looking at their cell phone. It almost seems that some of them either don’t care about their own safety or maybe they’re hoping to get hit so they can sue. It really is mind boggling!
Just because you have the right of way, doesn’t mean you should take it. And if you do – it certainly doesn’t mean that drivers will yield to you. Given that drivers are distracted, or even that lighting sometimes makes it difficult to see pedestrians – the pragmatic thing to do is to LOOK OUT FOR YOURSELF!
I can understand how a driver wouldn’t see a pedestrian, but I can’t understand how a pedestrian would not be looking or would continue to walk if it didn’t appear that a car was slowing down/stopping for them. Pedestrians need to take more personal responsibility for their own safety.
Hi, I’m the traffic and I wanted to let you know that if you give me a light at Marich Way there will be a lot more of me taking advantage of that and running along Marich now that it is so much easier to turn left toward El Camino.
You might want to put the light at the shopping center entrance a bit further away from El Camino, so as not to draw more traffic onto Marich. Pedestrians will still be able to cross easier.
Or put a light at both places and make them coordinate.
@simple solution; I am NOT a “speed freak” and honestly, stop exaggerating this aspect to push your agenda. This intersection/cross walk is obviously an issue, we can all agree on that.
I still don’t understand why there has to be a crosswalk right there. Why aren’t the ones at ECR and Springer sufficient? This is just a totally bizarre place to put a crosswalk. 200 ft off a turn from El Camino, it just DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.
Blinking cross walks should be the de-facto norm. They save lives.
Also, one day I counted 4 red-light runners along Rengstorff & Jewell. The drivers here are insanely bad / aggressive. I see more bicyclists getting tickets than drivers.
Enough Traffic Lights has got this right. The flashing lights installed by the City in the crosswalks on Rengstorff near Rengstorff Park and on Showers Drive are an enormous help. Drivers see them. They slow down. They stop. Pedestrians still have to stay vigilant, but they do so with much more assurance that they will be seen. I certainly hope the flashing lights in the crosswalk option (together with repositioning the crosswalk, as appropriate) is given serious consideration.
well, I’ll be the lone dissenter here and say that I do not like the blinking traffic lights. Half the time they are blinking and there is no one in them. Cars start and stop, not sure if they should go or not and frankly I feel they give a false sense of security to pedestrians.
everyone is on this PC bandwagon for pedestrians. I say we need to get back to teaching pedestrians that streets are primarily for cars (and anyone who argues this is ridiculous. Streets ARE FOR CARS, that’s how they get from one point to another). Don’t cross except at major marked intersections and even then look and double check that any cars coming see you. There doesn’t need to be a crosswalk every 100 feet, again these streets are needed to MOVE CARS. Hence my point that this specific crosswalk that’s being debated is NOT NEEDED.
The alternative to this? Go ahead then, wth, put in your extra stoplights, multiple crosswalks, speed bumps, flashing lights. Heck, why don’t we just take cars off the road. They’re not going to be moving quickly enough anyway.
“well, I’ll be the lone dissenter here and say that I do not like the blinking traffic lights. Half the time they are blinking and there is no one in them. Cars start and stop, not sure if they should go or not and frankly I feel they give a false sense of security to pedestrians.”
Should we infer anything about your driving habits by that statement? Because that is definitely the impression I’m getting.
you make no sense, what exactly is the impression you’re getting? I guess the only way you can debate is to make snarky comments that make no sense.
My driving skills are just fine thank you. I was commenting on others I have noticed who don’t seem to know what to do.
” This is just a totally bizarre place to put a crosswalk.”
There is an unmarked crosswalk at every intersection. There being a crosswalk here is normal.
Part of the problem is that people get frustrated by slow traffic on El Camino, and thus once they get off El Camino they try to make up time by going faster on side streets.
First thing to do is prevent those slow Google self driving cars from going on streets with speed limits above 25 (since those cars cannot go faster than 25).
Next thing is to stop the insane idea of removing 2 car lanes from El Camino and making them bus lanes (like City Council recently voted to do). That will make car traffic much worse and much slower on El Camino. It benefits people who take buses going through MV, but has almost no benefit for people living in MV
Ignore my unintelligent neighbor above. Since Mountain View has voted it’s support for the dedicated transit lane project, I and most of my neighbors are very happy to have this project get underway and completed.
By improving our public transit infrastructure, we are getting people out of their cars, saving the environment, slowing the increase in traffic congestion and the list goes on and on. Improving pedistrian safety is paramount, since it is clear that there is this vocal minority that believes that cars rule the road and buses and pedestrians should get the (fudge) out! Please stop trying to block our transit projects and please stop running down our pedistrian citizenry.
Thank you,
An INTELLIGENT Cuesta Resident.
Ignore my rude and uninformed neighbor above. The BRT project is hardly about getting drivers out of their cars, even according to the VTA. The best estimates of a 20% increase in bus ridership is an insignificant volume of car traffic, especially compared to the 1/3 capacity we are losing.
Please try to not be so abrasive and dismissive, especially under a thread about pitential safety improvrments following a woman’s death.
The dedication of a lane purely for busses is overwhelmingly opposed by all and to infer otherwise is a gross misrepresentation and frankly should be either removed from msg boards or pursued as slander. Would be nice if there were a way to corroborate with facts all these ridiculous claims on the internet but since that’s not possible, fortunately the majority of us know better and educate ourselves by reading multiple sources and not paying attention to those who claim to be intelligent on anonymous boards.
Typically wouldn’t even bother to respond to such trolling but to imply MV have vote in favor of lane reductions is just plain WRONG.
Short-cuts through neighborhoods a problem? Just wait til the VTA begins construction on El Camino of its frivolous new center-of-the-road bus stations and bus-only lanes. El Camino “bus rapid transit” will only be approved if and when the VTA gets its six billion money grab approved by county voters next year (probably November 2016). But, generally speaking, bureaucracies live longer than protesters. And many political “leaders” are mostly concerned about appearanes.
WARNING! The following contains common sense. If you find this offensive please do not read further.
-Crosswalks only at traffic lights
-Look both ways before crossing
-Do not assume someone will stop
-Do not assume someome sees you
Traffic light is not the answer. It’s too close to the el camino light. I would say get rid of the cross walk at that spot. I go through that area several times a day and its a mess. Another light will make it worse. In this case I would say that pedestrians walk an extra few yards and use the walk at the el camino light.
Unfortunately the people that have been moving into Silicon Valley only value one life, their own. They value getting * themselves * to their jobs, to their kids’ school, to their meeting, to store, wherever they are going. They are ALWAYS in a big hurry. They do not care if they kill you or your children. That’s what it boils down to. If you are driving five miles over the speed limit instead of 10-15 they harrass you sitting on your tail or go full speed around to get that one or two cars ahead of you so they can “win” the traffic game. Who cares if they are putting lives at risk?
I witnessed yesterday as it was raining a group of 5-6 people waiting at crosswalk where everyone rushed passed them going over the 25 mile speed limit in a school zone to the red light waiting for them. I counted 6 cars before someone who values human life and kindness followed the LAW and waited for them to cross.