By Linda Taaffe

Los Altos City Hall plans to dedicate 40 hours more each week to city traffic woes with a new full-time traffic engineer. The city hired Tom Ho March 3 to fill the traffic engineering position vacant for the past year since Dave Donahue retired. Donahue, who agreed to work with the city part time until a new engineer came on board, plans to continue through the summer to finalize some projects.

Ho worked in the San Jose Public Works, Engineering and Environmental Services departments over the past 30 years. He is a civil engineering graduate from San Jose State University with a professional engineer’s license.

The seasoned engineer joins Los Altos when the city is processing several traffic grants, launching its first major physical traffic improvements and reorganizing its traffic committees and task force.

“I feel the best solution should be the most basic if it works. We shouldn’t try to put physical devices in place unless it’s unavoidable,” Ho said.

Police enforcement, public awareness and education are key, he added.

Ho worked closely with residents in San Jose to establish neighborhood traffic-calming solutions as part of a city program similar to Los Altos’ Neighborhood Traffic Management Plan.

The biggest difference between San Jose and Los Altos, Ho said, was that 99 percent of San Jose’s streets have sidewalks with gutters. In Los Altos, it’s almost the reverse.

“I think Los Altos will be a little more of a challenge, but I feel there are solutions out there,” Ho said.