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Jake Krakauer said Milpitas was located between two major freeways, they have significant regional traffic issues, commuters routinely use secondary and tertiary streets, alternate commute routes conflict with school access, and he has personally sat in commute traffic for 4 light changes during the school drop off time because it was still faster than sitting on the freeway. He felt cut-through traffic affected all neighborhoods, not just the neighborhood where people exit the freeway, but the entire City between the two freeways, and major freeway incidents cause complete gridlock in the city. Milpitas has right-turn restrictions in residential and school areas between 6-9 am, except for carpools, speed bumps in residential areas and non-timed traffic lights. In the regional category, Mission South and the 880 interchange being built, carpool lanes on 680 and 880 will be coming, but a connector between the two freeways which is what was really needed, does not exist. Milpitas will not build that because they consider this a regional traffic problem which must be solved by people other than the City of Milpitas. People look for any alternative to reduce travel time or reduce stop and go freeway traffic, cut-through traffic affects all neighborhoods, and until regional issues are solved, local solutions will have minimal impact. He felt what was needed was confidence that before a Stoneridge extension is approved, Pleasanton residents will benefit. Secondly, that Valley Avenue resident’s can gain without destroying the Stoneridge neighborhood at the same time. He asked that Council consider how to achieve a balance while moving forward. Mike Manning said about 4 years ago he began his own traffic study research. He said he was on Valley and Santa Rita waiting for traffic to move along and got side-swiped by a motorcycle speeding through. From that point on, he paid particular attention to that area. Almost everyday he walks across the street to Safeway, agrees it is unsafe, said as each year goes by, there is not only more traffic but the pattern has a longer duration. He felt it was amazing in the amount of time it takes to maneuver around traffic. He said he and his wife walk and ride bikes a lot and felt that the most impacted area was in the Valley and Santa Rita area and encouraged the Council to re-distribute the traffic. He does not see putting through an extension would cut down on traffic, but does see the need to re- distribute it and encouraged this. There being no further speakers, public comment was closed. Mayor Hosterman said when she was elected to Council, her biggest interest was transportation and circulation, agreed Pleasanton was a lovely community but felt the city was at risk of losing its special quality of life. She identified years ago that if we continue to see increased congestion on 580 and 680 and then add a completed Stoneridge Drive from 580 to 680, we could essentially be providing for yet another congestion freeway-like road through the middle of town. Because of this she has advocated over the years to take the Stoneridge extension out of the General Plan. She campaigned on the issue three times, has made promises on the issue all the while recognizing and working hard through transportation agencies to try and address regional traffic, and they have done this to a certain degree. Over the last 2-3 years, many have worked hard on a solution to getting the congested freeway system moving, which includes a number of freeway infrastructure improvements. They also identified the price tag for those improvements. She said at the last Triangle Traffic Committee Study they identified all three legs of the freeway system surrounding Pleasanton. Regional partners withheld much needed improvements on State Route 84 from the table pending the outcome of this meeting tonight and said to them loud and clear that they want to force us to keep Stoneridge Drive City Council Minutes 15 May 1, 2007