Related traffic issues
  1. Clearing traffic on Cerrillos: Cars making a left turn into Whole Foods or Gilmore have to wait for E-bound traffic on Cerrillos to clear. When the traffic E-bound on Cerrillos has a green light at the St.Francis intersection, this may take a while. However, when the light at the St.Francis intersection changes, this does not necessarily clear E-bound traffic on Cerrillos, since there is a separate turn lane from St.Francis N onto Cerrillos E. During peak hours there is a steady flow of traffic there, and the lanes in front of Whole Foods may not clear for a long time.

    One option to improve this situation is to place a traffic light in this right-hand-turn lane at St.Francis and Cerrillos, which stops flow for a short part of the traffic light cycle, such that the lanes in front of Whole Foods are cleared.

  2. Pedestrian access from the Don Diego neighborhood: There is a lot of foot traffic through the Don Diego neighborhood to the shops on Cordova (Alfalfa's, Osco, Furr's etc.). There is every reason to believe that Whole Foods would attract a similar amount of pedestrians, which is something that should be encouraged. We therefore recommend a small pedestrian entrance on the back side of the lot, onto Calle Toreador. Some neighbors in the immediate vicinity have expressed concern that this would lead to people driving through the neigborhood, and parking on the local streets to take advantage of this back entrance. However if this entrance is too small for a shopping cart, but just big enough for one pedestrian or one bicycle, and if the immediate vicinity of this entrance is a no-parking zone, we feel that it is very unlikely that any cars would be attracted to this back enterance.

    We therefore would like a properly designed back entrance to be included in the plans.

    Note: It seems that this option runs into ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) regulations: any entry needs to be wheelchair accessible. An entry that lets wheelchairs in will let shopping carts out. Thus it looks like this idea is sunk, unless someone with ADA expertise can advise us otherwise.





Last update: 9 Jan 98.
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