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Acting Chair Blank commented that it would be a slightly higher number but with a little bit less concentration on the in's and out's. Mr. Tassano said yes. He added that the peak is distributed a little bit more evenly in the residential because people coming home are coming from different locations, whereas in the office, everyone generally leaves at 5:00 p.m. Commissioner Olson stated that it seems to him that it would be a service to the residents of this facility to have a traffic light that would stop traffic on West Las Positas Boulevard and create a gap to allow residents to get out of there en mass rather than sit in line and wait for gaps to develop. Mr. Tassano replied that there is a balance between those two scenarios. He explained that when a car pulls up to that signal and a car shows up every three seconds on West Las Positas Boulevard, the light is not going to change off of West Las Positas Boulevard. He noted that this is the way the arterial signals are timed, and if there are cars that are slowly going across, that signal will continue to be extended as vehicles continue to come across. He continued that when there is a gap sufficient to not significantly impede the West Las Positas Boulevard traffic, then the light would change. On the other hand, he noted that some people who live off of Santa Rita Road or on Pickens Lane have a wait time that exceeds a minute. He explained that if one car is waiting for a signal to change to make a left turn and there are four cars behind that car waiting to turn right but cannot do so because of the front car waiting for a left turn, then it actually slowed down those four vehicles. Mr. Tassano stated that the other thing to consider is when a traffic signal is installed, the rear -end collisions increase. He noted that it is a condition of traffic signals that somebody is changing the radio station when the light turns yellow, and the car behind sees the light change and moves forward, but the front car has not moved and a rear -end collision occurs. He indicated that it is something that needs to be balanced: access versus safety. He noted that there are no collisions right now with the existing volume, and he does not anticipate them occurring there with future volumes. Acting Chair Blank stated that it is really a phenomenon he got familiar with in the City of Livermore. He noted that he uses a small road that accesses Jack London Boulevard, and it was great until the mall opened; now he sits there four or five minutes waiting for the light to change, and he has actually seen people run the red light because they just got tired of waiting. He added that he would not have imagined that it cuts both ways had he not witnessed it. With the assumption that the project goes in and a traffic light is not installed; and the level of service decreases significantly, Commissioner Pearce asked Mr. Tassano if staff can go back in and ascertain that a light or some other kind of mitigations is needed after the fact. PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, November 14, 2012 Page 24 of 31