Students who drive down Levin to get to Mountain View High School may need to leave their homes a little earlier in the morning as the Wasatch Drive shortcut may soon be closed off.
The Mountain View City Council will vote in December to approve the City Council Transportation Committee’s recommendation to close Wasatch Drive at Diericx Drive to vehicle traffic.
If the proposed improvements are approved, city staff will install a temporary Wasatch closure by February 2025 and evaluate the changes for 10 months before making it permanent.
Wasatch Drive is an L-shaped residential street that connects to both Levin Avenue and Diericx Drive to the east and includes 24 single family residential homes.
After multiple Wasatch Drive residents submitted formal complaints about speeding and use of the street as a cut-through last January, the Mountain View Police and Mountain View High staff addressed the concerns through targeted enforcement, education, and ongoing field observations, according to the Council Transportation Committee brief.
To verify the complaints, the city’s transportation committee conducted vehicle speed and cut-through studies last September. The study identified that approximately 70% of vehicles used Wasatch Drive as a cut-through street and 15% of the vehicles on Wasatch Drive traveled at or above the speed limit.
At a neighborhood meeting in February, city staff presented traffic-calming recommendations like speed humps, but nearly all attendees preferred to close off Wasatch Drive at Diericx Drive to vehicle traffic, according to the brief.
In a survey sent to all the residents of Wasatch Drive, 67% responded and 88% voted in favor of the Wasatch closure while 12% voted against it, according to the brief.
