Photo: Blossom Hill Road has illegal sign at bridge prohibiting pedestrians and bicyclists, thus forcing them to cross the railroad and Monterey Highway
at grade. A walking region is easily and cheaply created by several methods, such as clearing shrubs and
painting shoulder lines for walkers and bicyclists.
The Mercury News has ignored the bigger story about the Blossom Hill Road
fatality. Hatton, the baby-sitter of the toddler who was killed as they were crossing the railroad,
was apparently going along Blossom Hill Road as
described in the Mercury News article [12/10/05]:
"She planned to take the light rail from her house on Blossom Hill Road [but due to change in plans] headed down the sidewalk of the busy Blossom Hill Road."
The bigger story is that
if Hatton would have just kept going along Blossom Hill Road by using
the existing Blossom Hill Road bridge --thus crossing above both the
railroad and the 50 mph Monterey Highway-- the fatality would have been
prevented. She did not do that because of San Jose's repeated roadway
design failure, including recent elimination of pedestrian/bicycle
facilities on that bridge, and its signs banning walkers, as described
here:
1) the pedestrian/bicycle facility was recently eliminated by the City
on the south side of the bridge to create another traffic lane. You can
still see the remnant of the shoulder line. Shoulders are recognized to
be pedestrian and bicycle facilities where alternatives are lacking.
Hatton would have had to walk in the traffic lane with the kids, as a
result. Hatton may have been safer crossing the tracks than walking the
kids in the traffic lane where the cars merge from Cottle Road onto the
bridge. On the north side, there are missing gaps in the shoulder
facility for walkers.
2) there are several signs stating "PEDESTRIANS ... PROHIBITED" and "NO TRESPASSING ...". Because she went that way 5 or 6 times previously
(according to Mercury News interview),
she must have seen these. The later signs were recently posted by San Jose staff and prevent walkers from using the dirt paths
and dirt sidewalks to get to the bridge.
The real culprit in the fatality is the City of San Jose. A suitable
title would have been "Death resulted by walking facility removed from
bridge." You can verify the shoulder line was removed by looking at the
SW corner of the structure, after the merge from Cottle, on the
concrete (not the asphalt, which was probably re-surfaced or
slurry-sealed). The faded remnant of the shoulder line still remains.
You can also verify that by calling SJ DOT.
I even warned SJ DOT about this two years ago in a letter (which I now
uploaded to the web). I also described how to make the bridge safe at
almost no cost, by painting lines and/or placing bumpers. Here is our
2003 letter:
http://moderntransit.org/safety/blossomhill2003.pdf
Here is a quote of my 2003 letter to the City:
"The alternative [to using the bridge] today is to walk across the RR
tracks with no signaling or whistle blowing. A similar situation on
Monterey & Capitol about two years ago resulted in a ped getting
killed by a train and the County settling the lawsuit. As a result, Dan
Collen [County Roads Department] put in a sidewalk on the bridge."
Walkers try to walk in the safest reasonable manner possible. A
one-mile detour is no more reasonable than asking a car driver on a
freeway to drive 20 miles out of the way for no logical reason. That is
because what counts is travel time, and a one-mile detour for walkers
is the same as 20 miles for motorists.
The situation has actually gotten more dangerous in recent years by the
City eliminating the shoulder, and posting "NO TRESPASSING" signs. Here
is our recent emailed letter to Council member Forrest Williams, which
has more details:
http://moderntransit.org/safety/blossomhill.text
Councilmember Williams replied that he referred our letter to San Jose DOT staff.