Mi Nguyen
This editorial represents the opinions of 12 out of 14 Outlook editors.
After an Aragon student was hit by a truck on Sept. 14, many community members rallied together to advocate for improving traffic safety around campus, including the organization Move San Mateo, the Aragon Parent Teacher Student Organization and the San Mateo Union High School District Board of Trustees.
In response to the incident, Move San Mateo proposed many initiatives to San Mateo City Council to increase traffic safety. After reviewing Move San Mateo’s proposals and PTSO’s suggestions, on Oct. 7, City Council sent an email informing the advocates of actions they will be taking, including short-term proposals to be implemented by early November and longer-term plans. The Aragon Outlook appreciates this effort and encourages City Council to apply more of the suggested initiatives, as safety around campus is of utmost importance.
One of Move San Mateo’s proposals to improve overall traffic safety is to make lanes narrower on Alameda de las Pulgas. Narrower lanes cause drivers to navigate more cautiously and pay more attention to the road, which decreases accidents, according to a John Hopkins School of Public Health study. This is especially necessary for the Aragon area, where collisions have occurred multiple times.
Moreover, this is an inexpensive yet effective way to increase pedestrian safety.
“[Lane narrowing] can be accomplished at the same time as the city performs regular, periodic repavings, which is already budgeted for,” said Move San Mateo co-lead Max Mautner. “[It] can be [as] simple as the city [just] deciding [where] to paint the lines on the road.”
Although a suggestion from Move San Mateo included increasing the pedestrian crossing time, which would make pedestrians more visible to drivers, the Outlook does not agree; rather, we believe the existing pedestrian crossing time is sufficient at approximately 28 seconds, as increasing this window may cause excessive traffic without sufficient benefit.
“We have plenty of time to walk,” said senior Sristi Sharma. “There’s a lot of people who need to drop off their children and [Alameda de las Pulgas] is their way of getting out of there. If [there’s] not much time for the cars to go, it would cause more sense of urgency between the cars, like wanting to leave faster and potentially hitting someone.”
In addition to most of Move San Mateo’s initiatives, the Outlook recommends the PTSO’s suggestion of a crossing signal on the north-south crosswalk on Aragon Boulevard be implemented by the city. Right now, the city is not planning to install this signal, because “robust signal modifications” would be required, according to the recent email from City Council. However, the establishment of this signal is necessary to better protect pedestrians on the Aragon side-street from turning cars and to decrease danger. Moreover, the Outlook believes this pedestrian signal should be exclusive, with no other cars allowed to turn during the crossing.
Finally, two of the proposals of Move San Mateo that City Council has said they are aiming to finish by November include no right turn on red and exclusive left. First, signage will be posted for every right turn in the Aragon-Alameda intersection to indicate the no right on red. Second, an exclusive pedestrian crossing with cars unable to turn left while traveling from Aragon Boulevard to southbound Alameda de las Pulgas will be enforced. Both of these measures will decrease the likelihood of pedestrian and vehicle collisions within crosswalks, which the Outlook greatly supports, especially in light of the September incident.
“When the walk sign turns on, the cars go at the same time,” said sophomore JP Saraiva. “I was crossing the street and the car went at the same time and I had to back up because I saw the car coming toward me. They just honked at me and kept going.”
Senior Sarina Jain agrees that the intersection was a significant issue.
“There’s so many accidents [that] somebody gets hit or injured in that crosswalk every year,” Jain said. “Cars have a hard time turning left at that intersection because there’s so many people crossing during when school starts and ends. Having a designated time [will] let those cars be able to actually [take] a left turn, as well as [allow] pedestrians [to] not be worried about any cars turning in there.”
The Outlook believes traffic safety around Aragon is a critical ongoing issue that must be addressed with real structural change as soon as possible. These proposals will greatly protect pedestrians from potential harm and ease the flow of safe traffic in the area.
