Stierlin Road should continue to feed into an onramp to Central
Expressway, or whether the onramp should be closed. Closure would enable
a really nice cycletrack and pedestrian path between Central and Stierlin
to be built, heading through the new apartment development that Prometheus hopes to have approved in the fall. Council decided to close the onramp, citing the need to take advantage of this unparalleled opportunity to
build the first segment of a safe, convenient "active transportation" link
from downtown to points north, including North Bayshore.
Many residents in the blocks northwest of Central and Moffett opposed the
onramp closure, citing its convenience given the current backup on
southbound Moffett during peak times. Others objected to drivers'
speeding down narrow neighborhood streets to get to the onramp, sometimes making it impossible for residents to get out of their driveways.
To expedite access to westbound Central if the onramp were closed, a proposal had landed on the table, and gained Staff's approval, to add a dedicated right-turn lane to southbound Moffett as it approaches Central Expressway, lessening the number of cars backed up there. However, most members of the public (and then Council) supported this option even if the onramp were left open. There was no study of the possibility of not widening Moffett but simply turning the current westmost lane into a dedicated right-turn lane, an alternative that members of MVCSP thought would also accomplish traffic-taming goals.
Concerns about long-standing issues of pedestrian and bicycle safety at
that intersection, magnified by the planned addition of a dedicated
right-turn lane, convinced a majority of Councilmembers that the details
of intersection design should be examined by B/PAC as soon as possible.