tragic !

There are several trouble spots and issues that make crossing Ralston treacherous - and not just the area where this tragedy occured. I think a light - instead of a stop sign -at that intersection just past the police station would be helpful. During times of heavy traffic there is a steady stream of cars down Ralston, with never a break long enough for cars or pedestrians to cross. This often prompts pedestrians and drivers leaving the college and the school to take risky chances. Additionally, the crosswalk by the shopping center is problematic because the presence of parked cars makes it impossible to see pedestrians approaching until they are already in the street.

Agreed to above statement. They need to somehow expand the lanes on ralston due to heavy traffic flow. Continued from Blythe Lands, the crosswalk in front of Ralston is unsafe. Traffic goes too fast passing Notre Dame High School and brings that speed up until the crosswalk where anybody could pop out of no where. Ive noticed Belmont PD parking their cars in view while driving Ralston as an attempt to slow the traffic down. The cop car scared me and made me slow down, probably the same for 90% of the cars that saw it. They are trying to slow and regulate traffic, they just need to do a little more to make it efficient for people to get where they need to go, in a timely matter.

I don't think it has anything to do with expanding. The person apparently decided NOT to use the crosswalk.

The San Mateo County Coroner's Office has identified the victim of a fatal traffic collision Sunday in Belmont as Lourdes Gallegos, 71, of San Mateo.

Gallagos was struck by a 1983 Chevrolet around 5:30 p.m. in the 900 block of Ralston Avenue, police said. She appears to have been trying to cross the road in an area without a crosswalk, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver, a 20-year-old Belmont man, stopped after the collision and is cooperating with police. There is no indication that drugs or alcohol were a factor, police said.

Guys this wasn't by NDNU this lady was too lazy to walk to either the El Camino light or 6th ave light. She Jay-walked between the two, near the bus stop. I saw the police blockade and drove around the crime scene.

Belmont is the only City on the peninsula that has a 30 MPH through it's downtown. all the rest have 25. Why? Belmont is the only city to have 30 MPH past it's Senior Center,a major Civic Center/Park , and our schools and Barrett Community Center. Why ? Because over the years our City Council has allowed this to happen because our traffic engineer said we need to move traffic We use to have a nice crosswalk mid block in downtown and we use to be able to park on Ralston and shop both sides. When people use to drive this block they would slow down and be cautious . Lets bring that back . Ralston Ave should be 25 MPH from Hiller St on the East to Alameda on the west . Those people coming off the freeway are going 60 MPH when they get to Hiller and don't care, but boy you go speed on there block, look out.

They took out that mid street crosswalk because it was too dangerous. The bus stop was secondary.

She was 70 and walking, killed on the route to catch bus. If you miss the bus in the evening its a  one hour wait. At the crosswalk its a three minute wait. He was 20 and driving distracted in an area where there are people crossing to transit. If you miss the light it's a one minute wait. Convenience and speed are killing both the planet and an concept of a downtown. The state created Safe Routes To Transit because of the inequity between motorized and foot powered facility designs. The majority killed tend to be men in their prime who think they can make the dash to catch the bus that won't wait.

I am very sorry for this family's loss, What a tragedy! am in agreement with Mike, please consider lowering the speed limit on Ralston. 40 mph is way too fast!! I worry for all the children at Ralston and Fox, who walk on the sidewalks up and down Ralston. Even lowering the speed limit on Ralston from 40 to 35 mph (between Almeda de Las Pulgas and 92) would be a significant improvement.

I agree with the above statement completely. If some changes are not made to the crosswalk at Carlmont, someone will be killed by an impatient driver who does not see a pedestrian because of the vegetation on the island or the parked cars...

Going eastbound on Ralston Avenue at the Carlmont Shopping Center is just as dangerous for a different reason. A merge lane was created on Ralston Avenue (going east) right after crossing the Alameda (next to the Chevron station). This merge lane was at one time a right-turn-only lane (turn right into Chevron or the Carlmont Shopping Center). Now cars have to merge with those already in the left lane to continue driving eastbound on Ralston. Trying to pay attention to merging cars and pedestrians in the crosswalk is almost too much to have to deal with in such a short half-block. Especially when you're dealing with those who intentionally get in the right lane to bypass those in the left lane at the merge. Their exuberance at trying to get ahead of cars already in the left (straight ahead) lane causes road rage and is potentially very dangerous to pedestrians trying to use the crosswalk.

On Saturday driving east on Ralston, there was a person in the crossway at the Shell Station going towards the Carlmont Shopping Center. I was slowing down when I noticed a car that was going to pass me on the right side. I pulled a little to the right to slow her down. All she did was honk her horn and flipped me off when she passed. Did not slow down. When she passed me, the person in the crossway was right in front of my car. Someday we will have a fatality there.

Gladwyn d'Souza, nowhere did it say he was distracted or speeding..... dont make him look guilty by putting words in peoples mouth.

I said distraction because it is large factor in crashes involving male drivers under the age of 30. I didn't say he was speeding... here is the basic speed law and safety-
http://dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc22350.htm
Which says
"in no event at a speed which endangers the safety of persons."
What is in the discussion, article, and the crash location are the general conditions which a driver should be aware at Ralston/ECR, such as transit, and the presence of pedestrians trying to access it.
Ultimately we shouldn't have infrastructure that we can't afford to police.

This appears to have been unavoidable. The lady was crossing mid block in the dark--no lights, no crosswalk. The guy had no clue until it was too late. It was a very unfortunate accident. Please folks--use the crosswalks. They're not 100%, but a lot safer than crossing mid block at night.

Unavoidable is not correct because this location has a lot of mostly young people crossing illegally over to the bus stop at all times of the day and night. If it was unavoidable there would be a lot more crashes.
How do you know the guy was clueless? Does that means he should have slowed down or stopped to evaluate conditions?
This location has been badly redesigned by our traffic engineers so that its unpleasant enough for these statistical occurances to be possible. People in turn don't bother walking; except those who have to: youth, seniors and the disabled.

I disagree. Had she used the crosswalk it is unlikely she would have got killed. Common sense.

Gladwyn-

The block is pretty short so people do not have to go far to get to a cross walk, but I am interested in hearing what would be your solution. I certainly agree that Ralston
traffic (speed and quantity) is incompatible with the idea of a downtown on both sides of that street. And by the way, I do walk down there quite often and I do not consider myselt old, young or diabled.
One more thing - I read your second to last sentence about four times and I am still confused by the arrangment of words. I will go back to burning more toffee now.

There are good examples in the area- Menlo Park's Santa Cruz and that fantastic sidewalk on the east side of El Camino with the crowded restaurants. I like Palo Alto's University Ave with the diagonal parking and the huge bulbouts... The entire street with its bike lanes is a model for Ralston, inviting enough that the home owners don't fence themselves off from the street. San Bruno has a nice, though stunted, main street. Outside the area I like Santa Cruz in Los Gatos, 4th in Santa Rosa, and a lot of south east Berkeley especially College Ave.

Streets should work the way people use it- where they walk out of necessity should be a design criteria, the destinations they seek shouldn't be life altering decisions, and telephone outlets and storage shouldn't be the main attraction. Between the tattoo shops and the vacant auto lots you'd think the Chamber was in charge of Belmont Planning.

Short is relative- its a consequence of wealth and privilege, just having the time to make destinations, and hang out with an iThing subscribed to various twitter feeds that update the status of the next bus or train; but I also am not time constrained by a minimum wage job, and have options like being able to ride a bike to most destinations.

@Steve, they drove by my house as well, pretty impressive with all the lights. I think it was this group: http://sancarlos.patch.com/blog_posts/peninsula-bike-party-tours-peninsula-night-lights

They were from Passion Trail Bikes according to Margaret Pye in San Carlos. She is on their mail list and participates. They regularly organize those big rides you see going up Ralston. As you know I prefer highways like El Camino- hands down my favorite bike locatiion- to trails, becasue it's fast efficient and goes places I want to go.

PTB is one of those successful Belmont business that give a lot back to the community such as building trails in Waterdog; for which they are kept hidden away until they grow up and move out of Belmont. And Ralston is designed as an insurance liability for them.

This is a natural consequence of the collusion of mediocrity between past city councils and the Chamber.

http://www.passiontrailbikes.com/

We had about 75 riders for what has become an annual Christmas Lights ride at Passion. We started at the shop on Old County, rolled down 6th to San Carlos Ave, up around Devonshire and down Carmelita then over to Eucalyptus in San Carlos (yes we crossed the border and infiltrated that town south of us). Then back to the shop for Hot Cider and a few more stories. It was a great time had by all and even people in cars were nice to us although we slowed them down a couple times. Lots of cheers from homes with lights. It was a very nice community event.