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A San Jose Community Driven Project to Improve Road Safety & Community Livability
In 2022, the city recorded 65 traffic fatalities, more than half involving pedestrians, with a disproportionate impact on older adults (ages 50 and over). Nowhere is this more visible than Monterey Road. The nearly 10‑mile stretch from Keyes Street to Metcalf Road – widely known as “Blood Alley” – has long lacked safe sidewalks and crossings and is plagued by high vehicle speeds. City Vision Zero data for the most recent five‑year period (2019–2023) continues to identify Monterey Road as a priority safety corridor due to its concentration of severe and fatal crashes.
In 2023, the City of San Jose received a $2 million planning grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to begin the process of creating significant safety improvements along Monterey Road. To further complement the city and other stakeholders’ efforts, AARP California invited Greg Saville – an internationally renowned expert in building safer neighborhoods and crime prevention, and the founder of the SafeGrowth® model – to work with two groups of San Jose residents and AARP volunteers to develop community driven solutions that improve safety along Monterey Road.
Since October 2023, two community groups have used SafeGrowth® methods to examine neighborhood and road safety along Monterey Road. They focused on two of the corridor’s most dangerous intersections – Monterey Road at Curtner Avenue and at Branham Lane. Drawing on extensive volunteer fieldwork, community input, and data analysis, the groups produced reports summarizing their findings and safety improvement recommendations.
The recommended improvements can be found in the reports below:
These reports have since informed AARP California’s local advocacy efforts and been shared with City of San Jose elected officials and key stakeholders, contributing to several safety improvements, including:
- Restriped crosswalks at Monterey & Curtner and Monterey & Branham
- Reprogrammed traffic signals at Monterey & Curtner to allow more crossing time
- Installation of red-light cameras at Monterey & Branham
The work continues to improve safety along Monterey Road.
For more information on the AARP Monterey Road SafeGrowth® project, contact Ameen Khan, Associate State Director, San Jose at alkhan@aarp.org.
