PORTOLA VALLEY -- The unthinkable could also be coming to at least one of America's wealthiest rural enclaves: site visitors lights.

Congested and perilous prerequisites on Alpine Street have led San Mateo County to think about setting up stoplights at intersections in Ladera, a village simply west of Interstate 280 that is a part of the wider Portola Valley neighborhood.

For so much towns, whether or not to put in site visitors lighting can be a regimen factor. For Portola Valley, which included in 1964 to maintain its bucolic character, it's an existential main issue -- person who pits the pursuits of the tony the town in opposition to the ones of its smaller, much less robust neighbor.

"Portola Valley traditionally have been against lighting fixtures and traffic, and it is crossing a Rubicon of varieties if we pass in that direction," mentioned Steve Marra, chairman of the town's Bicycle, Pedestrian & Site visitors Protection Committee. "It units a precedent."

Even even though the lighting on busy Alpine Street could be erected simply east of Portola Valley's boundaries, they might have an effect on citizens of the larger the town. Alpine is without doubt one of the number one routes to the redwood-shaded houses and reside oak-spotted horse pastures of Portola Valley. Stoplights can be greater than an inconvenience for a few of Portola Valley's kind of 4,400 citizens -- they'd be an encroachment at the town's chic but pastoral identification.

"I assume we are the most effective the town in San Mateo County that doesn't have a stoplight," mentioned Nancy Lund, the town's historian,

"and we for sure experience that end-of-the-road rural high quality of lifestyles here."

Busy Alpine

Just closing week, the county was ready to post an software for a $500,000 supply to construct site visitors signs on each side of the Ladera U . s . Shopper, a strip mall a couple of quarter-mile west of I-280, however officers didn't notify Portola Valley leaders until the closing minute. They cried foul, and the Board of Supervisors pulled the appliance to permit for additional study.

Now the county will paintings with each Ladera and Portola Valley to peer if there are different answers to the issues on Alpine, which hums with a virtually consistent float of site visitors that usually exceeds the published velocity prohibit of 35 mph. The county is liable for site visitors enhancements in Ladera, an unincorporated bed room group of simply greater than 500 houses. However the county's choices are limited, stated public works director Jim Porter. There isn't sufficient room for a round intersection, or roundabout, and forestall indicators would not be enough.

"You actually need to take a look at what is possible," Porter stated. "THERE IS only a few how you can assign right-of-way."

The county proposed demand-triggered forestall lighting on Alpine at Le Mesa and L. a. Cuesta drives, the 2 primary roads out and in of Ladera. Currently, in step with a up to date county study, making left turns from the ones roads onto Alpine all over rush hour normally takes greater than three mins for every automotive.

In addition, there have been 15 collisions at or close to those intersections from 2004 to 20ELEVEN with 11 injuries, the observe discovered. Bicyclist Lauren Ward was struck and killed by a large rig in 2008 simply down Alpine Street on the intersection of I-280. Remaining week the Board of Supervisors licensed a $175,000 provide utility for a venture to enhance bicycle lanes there.

The heavy site visitors on Alpine Street stems from the truth that it connects with I-280 and offers easy access to Silicon Valley. After mountaineering west from Stanford School and crossing I-280, however, the street snakes into the wildest reaches of San Mateo County, the place motorists can force for miles with out seeing a site visitors light.

But the stretch that runs thru Ladera can now not be thought to be rural from the viewpoint of visitors volume, mentioned Shandon Lloyd, vice chairwoman of Portola Valley's Bicycle, Pedestrian & Site visitors Protection Committee. It is not simplest tricky to show onto that a part of Alpine, but in addition treacherous for pedestrians to move it.

"The numbers are urban," stated Lloyd, who lives in Ladera. "If we proceed to fake that it is a rural area, individuals are going to get harm. So we have to work out the way to save you a few tragedy."

Things change

Stepped-up regulation enforcement towards speeders could assist in the short-term, Lloyd stated. The Sheriff's Place of work conducts velocity enforcement in Portola Valley as a part of its public-safety agreement with the town, however in Ladera that function falls to the California Freeway Patrol. Lloyd and different citizens say they hardly ever see CHP site visitors stops in Ladera.

"I can expect one hand the selection of occasions I HAVE observed the CHP in dialog with a motorist, although I see them on the Ladera Client at mealtime," cracked Lovinda Beal, who has lived in Ladera considering 1994. She would love the county to put in a velocity desk on Alpine.

It would possibly come as no marvel that the speculation of visitors lighting seems to be extra well-liked in Ladera than in Portola Valley. A survey carried out by the Ladera Neighborhood Affiliation discovered that FORTY SEVEN p.c of respondents have been in desire of site visitors signals, with FORTY ONE % towards and the remainder not sure. In Portola Valley, consistent with Marra and Silver, most of the people who take part in a well-liked on-line dialogue team are towards the lighting.

"Folks take a look at 280 as a bulwark," stated Silver, "the good Wall of China to carry urbanization back."

Nonetheless, Portola Valley leaders recognize there's a drawback on Alpine, they usually appear keen to paintings with Ladera to resolve it. Portola Valley Mayor Maryann Derwin stated that, at the same time as she would favor to not see site visitors lighting at the town's doorstep, it can be inevitable.

"I have no idea how lengthy we are going to cling the line," Derwin mentioned. "ISSUES change."

Contact Aaron Kinney at 650-348-4357. Apply him at Twitter.com/kinneytimes.

Portola Valley at a glance

Size: 10 sq. milesPopulation: 4,406 Median family source of revenue: $167,227 Proportion of employees SIXTEEN and older who shuttle by automobile: 75.3 percentNumber of sunny days a 12 months: 265Sources: U.S. Census Bureau and city of Portola Valley