City Council Wrap-up
By Matt Artz
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 at 8:19 pm in Uncategorized.
Not much to report.
Roman Reed was approved unanimously to the Planning Commission, and looked very happy about it. He probably liked home work and science labs too.
The council will discuss the plans for safety improvements along Niles Canyon Road at the request of Mayor Wasserman.
And, the folks who live across Paseo Padre from the Waterpark presented alternative sites for a skatepark that the city has been planning to build adjacent to the water park. One site would be between the Teen Center and Paseo Padre, not far from the former Argus headquarters.
BTW, I tried out one of the back-in diagonal parking spaces on Capitol Avenue. Nailed it.
Also, turns out Sue Chan promoted a Kristi Yamaguchi even the council before I arrived for which some of the proceeds will benefit the family of Fremont Officer Todd Young. To learn more, click where it says to click
KRISTI YAMAGUCHI’S DREAMIN’ AT ZEUM
EVENT FACT SHEET
Date: Saturday, September 18, 2010
Time: 10:00am – 2:00pm
Location: Zeum, SF’s Children’s Museum at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco
Attendance: 800 people (target)
Audience: Families with children ages 3-12
Event Details:
Join Kristi for a day of making your dreams come true, while helping to enrich the lives of Bay Area Children. Create your own clay animation, become a rock star or get into the studio and shoot your own news broadcast!
Other event highlights:
- Meet Bay Area celebrities
- Ride the historic Zeum Carousel
- Each ticket purchased is automatically entered in to a fun-filled drawing for family-friendly prizes.
Proceeds benefit the Always Dream Foundation. So come on out, bring your friends and family!
$20 per person (children 2 years and under are free). For additional information or to purchase tickets, visit www.alwaysdream.org.
About ADF – The Always Dream Foundation is committed to finding innovative ways to provide support for a diverse range of programs designed to inspire and embrace the hopes and dreams of children and adolescents. . Proceeds from this event will help support the foundation’s ongoing programs and grant-making activities.
About Zeum – San Francisco’s Children’s Museum is a unique hands-on, multimedia arts and technology experience for kids of all ages. Located in downtown San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens, this 34,000 square foot digital playground provides kids with a range of interactive exhibits to explore their inner artist, performer, or director. For more info, visit: www.zeum.org.
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September 7th, 2010 at 10:08 pm
City Council needs to do something about re-adjusting the traffic signal on Sailway Drive. Paseo Padre is a major thoroughfare and should have a major advantage over Sailway at all times of the day. People are kept waiting, backed up along Paseo for far too long for such a tiny cross street.
September 7th, 2010 at 11:10 pm
What pisses me off about that intersection is the left turn from Paseo Padre onto Sailway. So many times I’ve been stuck for minutes in the left turn lane even though no cars are coming and I can see about a quater-mile up Paseo Padre. Makes me crazy.
September 8th, 2010 at 7:12 am
any idea what’s up with the plan of making a biking trail where the rail tracks used to be across mision and along the park? I believe there were some plans, but I do not see any movement…
September 8th, 2010 at 7:38 am
Andrew, you can send an email via the City’s website to the Transportation Engineering Dept. and request they check the timing.
Here’s the link:
http://www.fremont.gov/index.aspx?nid=538
September 8th, 2010 at 9:05 am
I have been going to Central Park for many, many years.
I never felt the need for a traffic light there.
I think what happened is Fremont got some grants and said where can we put som traffic lights.
The most ridiculus one is on Osgood Rd. and Blacow Rd. by the City of Fremonts maintenance yard.
Google it for a giggle.
Your Fremont City Council and Mayor at work?
September 8th, 2010 at 9:40 am
VOR – Thanks. Good link.
September 8th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Re:Caliguy # 6. How it really works.
There are several ways that traffic signals wind up where they are. In large development projects, traffic studies anticipate future traffic and the developer is required to install the lights. On Osgood/Blacow, the maintenance center, coupled with the small existing development, created a future demand and the signal was required of the city project. Remember that in the very near future, Osgood will have a major upgrade, which probably would have had to install the same signal.
In existing (already built) areas, there is an annual study done of unsignalized intersections. Each is evaluated and rated against a series of criteria established by traffic engineering professionals, including traffic counts, preventable accidents, etc. The rating points for each intersection are added, providing a ranking of intersections in order of importance.
Each year, an amount is budgetted for signals and council funds from the top of the list down until they use up the available funds. They never skip a project to fund one lower on the list because of liability concerns. If they skip one and there is an accident, a litigant could sue because their accident might have been prevented had the council not skipped it.
The alternative to installing signals on what some might consider silly locations is for council to stop funding before they get to that one on the list, so, instead of funding 3 intersections that year, only fund 2 and wait for next year’s ranking to address the issue again. Paseo and Sailway came out of that process and I think the driver for that decision was pedestrians trying to cross Paseo to access the park. There also have been accidents there over the years.
But, for me, the silliest signalized intersection is South Grimmer and Old Warm Springs, near NUMMI. The recommendation was challenged by council and I don’t think the vote was unanimous. The argument was that the morning commute traffic was the important factor. Since I don’t have to get up early enough to observe the morning commute, I couldn’t argue with them. I’m not sure if I voted for or against it.
These things each cost up to $150K, so we ought not just be putting them in because we have the money. They need to be proven necessary.
September 8th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
Thanx Gus, I have learned something about the process and thank you for contributing to this blog.
September 8th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
After the signals have been put in place, someone needs to check them against real life.
Example: Grimmer Blvd. between Blacow and Fremont blvd.
With all that new housing, many more signals were installed. As Mr. Morrison points out “…and the developer is required to install the lights.” If they all stayed green for Grimmer, no fuss. But they trip over even when people just need to make a right turn. Almost no one goes straight across and some, but few make a left.
The lights should NEVER trip just for a right hand turn.
Stevenson to Black to Grimmer to Paseo is a route many people take. Grimmer is a major leg of a major “get off the highway and go home” route for Fremont. Why do a few dinky, little roads, invented for a housing complex, get so much green?
September 8th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
“Black” should read “Blacow” – Type-o
September 8th, 2010 at 10:36 pm
Most intersections, including the four on Andrew’s Grimmer example (Carol, Irvington, Davis, and Bay) are controlled by the city’s master traffic computer located in the Engineering Department on Liberty St. It senses traffic and, while giving priority to the thru traffic on Grimmer, controls the crossing and left turn demands on the cross streets. Typically, the busier the traffic on Grimmer, the longer the wait on the cross streets.
Things can go wrong. Sensors in the pavement can fail, the signal controllers at the intersection can also fail. But, if the whole system is operating properly, the major flow should always have priority.
Right turns should not trigger the signal, generally, unless the vehicle is over the sensor for some reason. If that is actually happening, the traffic engineers should know it. You can tell them on the web site http://www.fremont.gov.
Of those four intersections, two have been signalized for as long as I can remember (Bay and Davis.) Carol was added later to provide a safe turn off Grimmer. And, I think Irvington was added as a condition of the development of the old Tri-City Sporting Goods site. I don’t think either Irvington or Carol fit your example of “dinky little roads.”
September 9th, 2010 at 10:31 am
But they DO trip for right hand turns. It aught to never have happened and it aught to fixed. It aught to be obvious too.
I can and will email the city informing them (again thanks VOR for the link), but should it really be the responsibility of drivers to inform the city? That’s the default plan?
If the issue is recent, abnormal and short-lived, then yes, report. These lights have been a problem for awhile. I guess I’m asking for some follow up visits; not just install it and let the computer run unchecked.
Carol behaves itself, but yes it is small, I use to live on it; Bay, Davis and even Irvington HAVE been there awhile…
…but after Tri-city Sporting goods was turned into housing, the lights changed their behavior.
Example: “Davis at Grimmer” is now more accurately “Grimmer at Broadmoor Common” when headed into Fremont and it is a problem signal.
Between 4PM and 7PM you should be able to slip down Grimmer without hitting a red light until Fremont Blvd. At the moment you get caught by every single one.
A good discussion. I’m going to let it rest.
September 9th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
I agree to let the issue rest, but the system is designed to work pretty much automatically and not require monitoring. There is no staff to go out to check on signal operation, and there shouldn’t be. The system responds to some kind of notification. Usually, it is the police who see the major concerns and report the problem. Other city employees who drive around town also report problems. I would be that they would not be very sensitive to right turn problems, so it is up to us to let them know when something is broken, and they on-line reporting system works pretty well. It got my street light fixed in a day or so.