Car vs pedestrian collisions have been a serious problem in Mountain View for years. The problem is that streets are too wide and cars drive too fast, especially in residential and business areas where there are lots of pedestrians. The problem is compounded by newspapers that continue to call these fatalities "accidents", implying that nothing can or should be done to save these lives. Also, car drivers keep blaming the pedestrians even though most of the victims are doing their best to obey the law (using legal crosswalks, etc).

Saving these lives starts from the top, with better road design and better road manners. Roads need to be designed to support a car speed that is appropriate for the number of pedestrians in the area. Narrower slower roads are proven to be much safer. Drivers also need to improve their manners by turning off their cell phones and focusing on the road in front of them. Obey the speed limit, don't drink and drive, and save the lives of your neighbors. Please.

There's a reason Mountain View was not seeing these kind of collision numbers in previous years.

One would think that the sharp spike in vehicle v pedestrian collisions is likely attributable to numerous factors, including but not limited to, the city of Mountain View being down one traffic officer, the sharp increase of commuters into (and through) the city (large spike in tech employment) as well as the shifting yet constant road congestion & the ripple effects caused by the relentless stream of construction projects along almost all major arterial thoroughfares in Mountain View. Add to all of that a momentarily distracted driver and/or pedestrian or cyclist and you have a recipe for disaster.


Too many people crammed into too small a space, and everyone trying to get somewhere often in the same window of time.

Wait until all the presently quiet residential streets city streets become cut through commuter streets as alternatives to El Camino Real when VTA's dedicated lane BRT scheme comes to fruition, in whatever iteration. Then you're talking about thousands of cars daily diverting OFF of a major arterial road - designed as a state highway - and those thousands of vehicles seeking short cuts through quiet residential streets in order to avoid El Camino Real. Talk about a safety hazard, instead of seeing the collisions on major arterial roads, I believe we will begin to see these types of collisions on presently quiet residential streets.

Congestion doesn't cause speeding and distracted driving. Careless drivers cause speeding and distracted driving.

@Pedestrian

While congestion doesn't DIRECTLY cause speeding and distracted driving (these are personal decisions), it DOES lead to conditions...frustration, hurrying, neighborhood cut-throughs...that make our roads less safe.

To write off congestion as playing a role in speeding/safety ignores the reality of causal relationships. Is congestion an excuse? Sure. But it's part of the safety picture and shouldn't be discounted.

There is constant call for safety regulations and technology to reduce automobile accidents, yet there are more deaths caused by guns.

We have the highest guns per capita than any nation on this planet, yet our gun regulations are near zero. If we really care about saving lives, let's work on both gun regulations and traffic safety together.

Web Link

"For the better part of a century, the machine most likely to kill an American has been the automobile.

Car crashes killed 33,561 people in 2012, the most recent year for which data is available, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Firearms killed 32,251 people in the United States in 2011, the most recent year for which the Centers for Disease Control has data.

But this year gun deaths are expected to surpass car deaths. That's according to a Center for American Progress report, which cites CDC data that shows guns will kill more Americans under 25 than cars in 2015. Already more than a quarter of the teenagers—15 years old and up—who die of injuries in the United States are killed in gun-related incidents, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics."

The various modes of transportation should be completely separated.
Why not pave lanes and short walls with some separation along the train tracks for bicycles and hoverboards?
Some places do and should ban entirely other than motorized vehicles, ie freeways, expressways. Passing a bicyclist at 50 mph can be dangerous.
Safety would be enhanced by construction of solid barriers or fences. New York and Amsterdam have great examples.

Boring traffic stories topped the news because a) nothing exciting happens in Mountain View, b) reporters are uncreative and lazy, especially if they aren't talented enough to work for a well-known publisher.

Be thankful there weren't articles about stabbings, shootings, and rapes.

I am sure the trend to wearing dark clothes and head sets have no bearing in the accidents. Or how many were using the Phones, people cannot even walk while on the phone how well can they cross the street?

"I am sure the trend to wearing dark clothes and head sets have no bearing in the accidents"

Pretty sure, or completely ignorant of the facts as they pertain to these cases? How does driver's speed and attention to the road ahead factor in to the causes?

Just curious as to why there isn't traffic enforcement in Mountain View. A few years ago there where mc cops around but I haven't seen any radar and or stop sign enforcement in quite a while. Not that I'm complaining I go 10 to 20 miles over the limit along with everyone else and roll thru stop signs, but it seems kind of a no brainier to put traffic cops out.
Speeding and cut thrus thru our neighborhood means pedestrians take their chances. Only safe place is in your speeding car!
And if you hit anyone it's an "accident"

Not only Mountain View has seen an increase. Page One headline SJ Mercury News Friday, Jan 1, 2016: "Road Deaths Spike in '15", by Robert Salonga. San Jose also saw a market increase in traffic deaths in 2015. It would be interesting to see if the entire Bay Area has seen similar increases.

I have noticed that since the 2008 recession, there has been a huge increase in traffic density and congestion on MV's main arteries and lesser streets. I also have notices a huge increase in truly incompetent drivers and overly aggressive rush hour drivers, probably frustrated by increased congestion. I also have seen an explosion in the number of pedestrians and also overly-aggressive rush hour bicycle riders. So, I attribute the increase in auto-pedestrian and auto-bicycle accidents to general overcrowding of our streets, combined with incompetent drivers and overly, aggressive bicyclists combined with jay-walking pedestrians (there are lots of Jay walking pedestrians along California Avenue and also Latham Street.)

Mountain View's obsession with flooding our city with excessive high density housing, combined with general regional overcrowding, probably is the main factor driving the increase in accidents and if people really care about safety on our roads, such overcrowding must stop now.

Its not the overall density, its the increase in the sub-population of jerks behind the wheel. This is a natural expectation with the increase of the base population. Take the jerks off the road an traffic will be markedly better, regardless of the density.

Still don't know about lack of enforcement. I was going the speed limit this morning on central xway and a car passed me as if I was standing still. At least 70 - 80 mph. Kind of usual . There just isn't any enforcement!

There is no reason to ever worry about traffic laws in MV, just as there is no reason to worry about getting hit by lightning. The risks are so very minimal that I simply do what I feel is safe at the time. MV has just a scant few cops to enforce traffic laws. No cops, no worries.

With types like you on the roads, I'm surprised the death toll isn't higher in Mountain View.

I lost a friend in one of those accidents because somebody wasn't paying attention. Drivers blame pedestrians and visa versa, here's a tip to pedestrian, MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH THE DRIVER OF THE CAR YOU ARE CROSSING IN FRONT OF BEFORE YOU CROSS IN FRONT OF THEM, WAVE, SMILE, SAY HELLO, WHAT EVER IT TAKES TO GET THeir ATTENTION, and drivers drive the speed limit, put the phones down and PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT GOING ON AROUND YOU. It's not rocket surgery people