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

Congested and threatening 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 such a lot towns, whether or not to put in visitors lighting could be a regimen factor. For Portola Valley, which included in 1964 to maintain its bucolic character, it's an existential obstacle -- person who pits the pursuits of the tony the city in opposition to the ones of its smaller, much less tough neighbor.

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

Even although the lighting fixtures on busy Alpine Highway can be erected simply east of Portola Valley's boundaries, they might impact citizens of the larger the town. Alpine is likely one of the number one routes to the redwood-shaded houses and reside oak-spotted horse pastures of Portola Valley. Stoplights could be greater than an inconvenience for a few of Portola Valley's more or less 4,400 citizens -- they might be an encroachment at the town's chic but pastoral identification.

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

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

Busy Alpine

Just final week, the county was ready to post an utility for a $500,000 supply to construct site visitors indications on all sides of the Ladera U . s . a . Shopper, a strip mall a couple of quarter-mile west of I-280, however officers didn't notify Portola Valley leaders until the final minute. They cried foul, and the Board of Supervisors pulled the applying 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 restrict of 35 mph. The county is answerable for site visitors enhancements in Ladera, an unincorporated bed room neighborhood of simply greater than 500 houses. However the county's choices are limited, mentioned public works director Jim Porter. There isn't enough space for a round intersection, or roundabout, and prevent indicators would not be enough.

"You in point of fact need to have a look at what is possible," Porter stated. "THERE IS only a few how one can assign proper of way."

The county proposed demand-triggered forestall lighting on Alpine at L. a. 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 through rush hour in most cases takes greater than three mins for every automobile.

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

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

But the stretch that runs via Ladera can now not be thought to be rural from the viewpoint of site visitors volume, stated Shandon Lloyd, vice chairwoman of Portola Valley's Bicycle, Pedestrian & Visitors Protection Committee. It is not most effective tough to show onto that a part of Alpine, but in addition treacherous for pedestrians to pass it.

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

Things change

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

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

It might come as no marvel that the speculation of site visitors lighting seems to be extra widespread in Ladera than in Portola Valley. A survey performed by the Ladera Group Affiliation discovered that FORTY SEVEN p.c of respondents had been in choose of site visitors signals, with FORTY ONE % towards and the remaining unsure. In Portola Valley, in line with Marra and Silver, most of the people who take part in a well-liked on-line dialogue workforce are towards the lighting fixtures.

"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 downside on Alpine, and so they appear prepared to paintings with Ladera to unravel 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 do not know how lengthy we are going to cling the line," Derwin stated. "ISSUES change."

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

Portola Valley at a glance

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