By Eliza Ridgeway

The Los Altos Hills City Council decided not to widen Fremont Road in front of Pinewood School’s Upper Campus, the site of traffic slowdowns during the morning commute.

On weekday mornings, a sluggish commute along Fremont Road has been a fact of life for many in Los Altos Hills. This is unlikely to change soon - the city council scrapped preliminary plans to widen the road at its March 23 council meeting.

Town staff carried out a traffic congestion evaluation at the intersection of Fremont Road and Weston Drive in front of the Pinewood School Upper Campus and found a maximum waiting time of about 3 minutes during the peak period between 7:50 and 8:05 a.m. During a one-hour traffic count, 424 cars crossed the intersection, 262 turned into the Pinewood parking lot.

Interim City Manager and Planning Director Carl Cahill noted that increased cut-through traffic might occur as a consequence of the Mayfield-developed project on Arastradero Road.

A traffic analysis from Public Works Director Henry Louie outlined a possible $58,000 plan to add turning lanes at the intersection. After discussing the prospect of co-funding such a project with Pinewood, the council chose not to pursue the matter, citing a desire not to encourage further traffic on the road.

“It’s also a question of rural character,” Councilman Craig Jones said. “The more you pave, the less it looks like the Los Altos Hills of old.”