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fatal accident in this area because the City has been warned about the situation. He understood the need to reduce congestion downtown, but as a resident of the City he felt he had a right to get to his home without being impeded by the City's traffic engineers. He realized there are non- residents cutting through, but he did not want to be penalized because of that. He suggested metering the areas where the cut through drivers would be leaving the City in the evening, such as Stanley or Santa Rita, so their commute time would be longer and longer, but not affect the majority of Pleasanton residents trying to get home. He wanted a balance of slowing people coming in and exiting so the net effect is multiplied on those cutting through, but reduced on the residents entering. Mr. Knowles said staffis actively modeling the effect of onramp metering because it seemed to reduce cut through traffic and also improve freeway flow, which in turn reduces cut through traffic because traffic would stay on the freeway. He had told the Pleasanton Hills residents that the no left turn sign to their neighborhood was not the ultimate solution and would be removed eventually. He also did not think the metering program was the ultimate solution. There needs to be improvement to the regional roadway network so the traffic stays on those roadways. He hoped that eventually the on-street metering would be shut down. Mr. Knowles also noted that this is not just about convenience. He believed the cut through traffic has been rerouted and reduced to a level the system can handle. He noted prior collisions along this route at Kottinger and First. There is senior housing and the senior center on Sunol as well. He was concerned about freeway safety, but that needs to be balanced with severe injury collisions that are also occurring on City streets. Ms. Ayala felt the Kottinger and First intersection has been improved with the crosswalk and traffic signal. Mr. Knowles said it would seem so, but remember the majority of collisions occur at traffic signals. Gene Walls, 525 Junipero Street, said he is retired and sees the traffic on Junipero at all times of day. He said traffic has decreased since the metering started. There is still a speeding problem. He indicated there is a park on his street and he was concerned about speeding and traffic near the park. He felt people should try to relax more on their drive home and not rush. He believed the metering has helped and was in favor of continuing it. Ray Ovasey (sp?) said he was neutral about the metering but commented that it was possible to install a detector at the off ramp, so when the traffic backs up to the freeway, the signals would change to allow more traffic through. Mr. Knowles said staff had thought of that if CalTrans would allow the City to install one of its cue detectors to monitor the backup. The impacts would be felt downtown, but ifa seven minute cue is enough to divert most of the traffic most of the time, maybe people can live with the fact that we do have to help out the regional system at those moments when there is an incident on one of the state routes. In those cases, the signal timing would allow more green time to keep traffic from backing up to the freeway. He would tie that in with moving the metering to Sycamore to allow more storage room. Pleasanton City Council 9 08/22/02 Special Meeting Minutes