Drivers dropping off and picking up students at Gunn High School will have a new access point to campus by the time school opens next month.
The new "Miranda Drop-Off" for the first time will allow general vehicle access to the campus on a paved driveway from Miranda Avenue, near its intersection with Arastradero Road.
Bicyclists will get a separate entrance in the form of a ramp that links the existing bike path to parking racks near the school's two-story math and English building.
A new vehicle curb cut on Miranda will take cars onto a driveway that runs parallel to the existing bike path and extends all the way back to the year-old math and English building.
The first 230 feet of the driveway will be available for vehicle drop-off access, with a 20-foot-wide rotary that will allow cars to turn around to exit campus. Beyond the rotary, parking spaces will be available for Gunn staff, construction manager Tom Hodges said.
The Miranda project includes changes to the traffic signal aimed at cars exiting northbound Foothill Expressway and proceeding across Arastradero to Miranda, Hodges said. The new signal will be longer, he said, and a right-turn lane will be painted for cars turning into campus. Cars exiting the Miranda drop-off will be required to turn right on Miranda.
The $2 million Miranda addition is one of many school construction projects completed or underway across the district under the $378 million "Strong Schools" bond passed by voters in 2008.
Other "Strong Schools" projects at Gunn have included a $4.8 million aquatics center, a $5 million industrial arts building, a $12.2 million second gym, a $25 million project that included the two-story math and English building plus a five-classroom World Languages building and the retrofitting of older classrooms with air conditioning.
Still to come at Gunn is the so-called "Central Building Project" that ultimately will see demolition of the current music building and construction of an addition to the front of Spangenberg Theater that will include a student lounge and activities area, student services, flexible classrooms and potential space for a college and career center.
Comments
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jul 16, 2014 at 8:22 am
on Jul 16, 2014 at 8:22 am
Bet this will make San Antonio a better option for getting kids to school.
Midtown
on Jul 16, 2014 at 10:36 am
on Jul 16, 2014 at 10:36 am
San Antonio is no where close to Gunn. Actually, getting out of this new dropoff area on Miranda may be more difficult than the previous pickup/dropoff area at the main entrance.
South of Midtown
on Jul 16, 2014 at 10:41 am
on Jul 16, 2014 at 10:41 am
A majority of Gunn students use foot-power (walking or bicycling) to get to school. The new bike bridge connecting the upper Bol Park/Miranda path into campus and bike parking behind Building N is helpful. Gunn also added badly needed additional new bike parking at the south end of campus behind building J to serve bicyclists coming from Arastradero. They also improved internal campus bike routes (last year) connecting Los Robles and Georgia entrances more safely to new bike parking areas at the north end of campus. Gunn now parks about 870 bikes per day during peak season and about 650-700 bikes per day during the wetter, colder off-season period.
Gunn student and Eagle Scout, Ian Cramer, just installed a new do-it-yourself bike repair and pump station near the largest bike parking area on campus.
The city is working on improving bike and walking routes into campus, along with improving routes to other PAUSD schools--and they have just created a new Walk & Roll map of these routes which will be posted on an updated Transportation web page soon. Parents and students can use this map to identify the best walking and bicyclist routes from their home to school.
Good things are happening at Gunn!
South of Midtown
on Jul 16, 2014 at 10:49 am
on Jul 16, 2014 at 10:49 am
VTA 88, 88L, and 88M bus lines also serve Gunn students very well. One-trip fare is 75 cents for students under 18 and $1.25 for students over 18. Generally, the schedules for these buses correspond with Gunn bell schedules. The VTA 88 stop is directly in front of or across from Gunn on Arastradero Road. See http://www.88bus.org .
On occasions when one must drive to school, it's great to share the ride. Carpooling reduces congestion during the bell-time crunch. Carpool matching tools are coming soon.
We ARE the traffic!
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jul 16, 2014 at 11:34 am
on Jul 16, 2014 at 11:34 am
2 million dollars to accommodate the LAH students. Haven't noticed a new bridge from upper Bol to Gunn. Where is it again?
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jul 16, 2014 at 11:36 am
on Jul 16, 2014 at 11:36 am
oh, the new pavement from the bike path to the math/english area
didn't know it is a bridge
Greenmeadow
on Jul 16, 2014 at 12:02 pm
on Jul 16, 2014 at 12:02 pm
We used the San Antonio route to Gunn for seven years when our three children went Gunn students.
No longer the best kept secret in the Gunn school commute, it's a huge time saver being out of the traffic quagmire of Alma/Charleston/ECR/Arastradero!
Barron Park
on Jul 16, 2014 at 12:50 pm
on Jul 16, 2014 at 12:50 pm
This is good news for Gunn and will help traffic somewhat.
But as for Arastradero, it is very clogged. Even with school closed in summer, the traffic on Arastradero around the 9am hour is extremely clogged going from Clemo/El Camino to Foothill. You'd think most commute traffic would be done by 9am, but this extends well to 9:30am. This needs fixing -- maybe the traffic signals on Foothill don't allow for the heavy traffic on Arastradero enough time to move along.
Gunn High School
on Jul 16, 2014 at 2:41 pm
on Jul 16, 2014 at 2:41 pm
Glad for this, but it's kind of a drop in the bucket when you consider the VMWare expansion is nowhere near finished, and all those people in the new Apartmentzillas on El Camino to San Antonio will be going to Gunn (or are we inflicting those high-density problems on Los Altos Unified?)
Gunn is still slated to expand by hundreds of students. Reopening Cubberly would do a lot more to reduce traffic.
Barron Park
on Jul 16, 2014 at 4:59 pm
on Jul 16, 2014 at 4:59 pm
Great! I hope parents and anyone else dropping off someone at Gunn use it.
Traffic coming out the main entrance to Gunn onto Arastradero makes a huge mess of traffic on Arastradero because the Gun light is demand for Gunn. There should be no departures from Gunn directly onto Arastradero during commute hours.
Gunn High School
on Jul 16, 2014 at 6:05 pm
on Jul 16, 2014 at 6:05 pm
Sunshine, can you cast a ray of light where cars coming from the main Gunn parking lot should go during commute hours if they can't go on Arastradero? The main parking lot is one way in and one way out.
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jul 17, 2014 at 9:37 am
on Jul 17, 2014 at 9:37 am
I just learned about this great app to organize carpools. It's designed specifically for parents. Check out www.kangadoapp.com . It is designed for parents. Really easy. Very cool tool.
Check it out!
Gunn High School
on Jul 17, 2014 at 6:18 pm
on Jul 17, 2014 at 6:18 pm
Is there any will to start "biking buses" at predictable intervals?..."
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jul 17, 2014 at 6:46 pm
on Jul 17, 2014 at 6:46 pm
Not sure about a biking bus, but we have a biking snake most school mornings.
Midtown
on Jul 18, 2014 at 8:30 pm
on Jul 18, 2014 at 8:30 pm
Is there a pedestrian crosswalk going in across the driveway to go from Bol Park to the corner at Arastradero/Miranda? I see no marked way for walkers from Arastradero to get to Bol Park. Hard to believe.