Saratoga's Traffic Safety Commission has eight resident-reported trouble spots on its agenda for Thursday, Nov. 12, several of them on routes children use to walk and bike to school.
The commission meets at 6:30 p.m. in the Linda Callon Conference Room at City Hall, 13777 Fruitvale Ave., and online by Zoom. For each item, commissioners are asked to review the request and make a recommendation. Here is what residents have asked for, according to the request forms posted with the agenda.
New requests
- Fruitvale Avenue at Douglass Lane: A resident wrote that pulling out of Douglass onto Fruitvale has become close to impossible because of speeding traffic, made worse where Fruitvale shifts between one and two lanes. Drivers leaving West Valley College turn out directly across from Douglass. The request asks for a traffic signal or, at minimum, a four-way stop.
- Quito Road at Aspesi Drive: Two families, one writing in 2024 and another in August 2026, say children biking home from Marshall Lane Elementary struggle to make the left turn from Quito onto Aspesi. Both asked for an on-demand crossing, such as rectangular rapid flashing beacons like the ones at Quito and Ravenwood Drive.
- Quito Road near Cox and Baylor avenues: A driver reported frequent pedestrians crossing near a bus stop, plus students biking to Prospect High, and asked for a crosswalk.
- Glen Brae Drive at Hammons Avenue: A request to turn the two-way stop into a four-way stop, citing trees that block drivers' view in both directions.
- Citywide streetlights: A resident asked the city to add at least one or two streetlights on residential streets that have none, saying dark streets are a hazard for children walking and biking at night.
Items coming back
Three older cases return with history. On Glen Brae Drive between Congress Springs Park and Cox Avenue, where a 2024 complaint described cars hitting about 50 mph during school and soccer hours, the commission voted in January 2025 for a two-stage approach: striping and curb extensions first, with speed tables to follow if speeding continued.
At Saratoga Avenue and Scotland Drive, near Redwood Middle School, the commission voted in July to follow its traffic engineer's advice to add curb bulb-outs, prohibit right turns on red during school drop-off and pickup hours, and enforce the corner's sight triangle, with the design to return for approval.