By Lauren McSherry

joe hu/town crier A woman jaywalks with her dog across San Antonio Road in front of the Los Altos Civic Center, located near a signalized intersection and a painted crosswalk.

Pedestrians along San Antonio Road, where a 74-year-old man was killed in March, weighed in last week on the places where the so-called four-lane “freeway” is most dangerous.

Leslie Sims, a Los Altos resident for 60 years who walks downtown and to the library on a regular basis, prefers jaywalking to using crosswalks. She picks a “safe place” along San Antonio where there are no crosswalks, such as the area near the main library, then traverses the street, waiting on the median for a clear break in traffic in the facing lanes.

“Putting in a crosswalk is not going to save a person’s life,” she said. “Stoplights take forever and a day. This is safe. I’ve never had a problem.”

Several pedestrians said the three-way intersection at Main Street and Edith Avenue, where 16 lanes of traffic converge, is the most dangerous, especially when parents are crossing San Antonio with small children or baby carriages.

“The light is too fast. It’s nerve wracking,” said Los Altos resident Mary Wu.

“This intersection (is dangerous) because there are a lot of cars coming from all directions,” said Mountain View high student Ana Gonzalez, who takes a bus and then walks to the library twice a week.

One woman about to traverse the Hawthorne Intersection said that cars consistently don’t stop, even though there is a crosswalk. As she waited for traffic to slow, one car came to a stop, but “That’s because I know her,” she added.

Los Altos resident John Hamblin wants to see San Antonio de-emphasized as a main thoroughfare. An architect by trade, Hamblin has a background that includes city planning.

He said that he would like to see traffic flow slowed down and reduced.

The problem, he said, is that San Antonio is one of the only ways to get from Highway 101 to Foothill Expressway and Interstate 280. He noted that most of the accidents involving pedestrians on San Antonio have occurred at intersections.

A pedestrian leaving the library said he wanted to see blinking crosswalks installed at every intersection on San Antonio while another pedestrian leaving city hall suggested installing signals at Hillview and Hawthorne avenues and Pepper Drive.