On July 27, Palo Alto City Council passed a measure to create a hybrid configuration on the lanes of Arastradero Road. The council aims to complete the project by June 2010 and will attempt to curb traffic and commuter-related problems outside of Gunn High School directly before and after school hours.

The hybrid configuration will create a road where there are two lanes traveling in both directions of Arastradero from Gunn to Terman, which will merge into one lane past Terman to El Camino further down the road. The plan also installs various left turn lanes along Arastradero, creates a dedicated right turn lane for Gunn and widens the bike paths to improve biker safety.

The plan has been debated among members of City Council since 2003. A trial was initiated on Charleston Road in 2006, which convinced many members of the City Council that the lane hybridization would work.

Members of the school community and administration, however, have mixed feelings about the plan. Some students feel that the plan will hinder, not help, the already problematic traffic going to and from school. “Traffic on Arastradero has always been bad, but merging lanes would make it much worse,” senior Samvel Avagyan wrote in an e-mail.

Avagyan later added that the new configuration would also affect people who use Arastradero to get to work. “It would make it very difficult for the students to get to school on time and could cause people working at Stanford or other companies along Arastradero to be late,” Avagyan said.

Some students, however, feel that while the idea may have been misguided, there could be some positive aspects to adopting the plan. “Biking down Arastradero, to me, is somewhat dangerous,” senior Lindsay Maggard said. Maggard, who has been hit by a car while biking, usually does not bike on Arastradero, preferring to bike on alternative routes, and feels that although this would improve bike safety, the plan was ultimately not a good idea, as many people do not bike to school on Arastradero.

The administration has expressed discontent with the plan, despite the council’s adamant support of it. “The City Council did not appear receptive to hearing opposition to the proposal,” Principal Noreen Likins said. World Languages Instructional Supervisor Anne Jensen and Assistant Principal Tom Jacoubowsky attended the July 27 meeting, and both were concerned by City Council’s reaction to their propositions. “We had to wait until 11 p.m. for our issue to be heard on the agenda” Jensen said. “They were surprised we were there to present a different viewpoint than the one presented by the Planning Commission.”

City Council plans to meet with the administration and staff on Sept. 17 to discuss the newly passed plan.