San Jose is planning on trimming down the fat on some city streets in an effort to make them safer and slower.
In South San Jose, the effort is getting mixed reviews. The changes to Kooser Road, from Camden Avenue to Blossom Hill Road, have received both praise and criticism. When the so-called road diet project is completed, Kooser will have just one lane for vehicles in each direction.
"It'd be a good idea, just for safety reasons," neighbor Gage Wilkerson said.
Wilkerson has lived along Kooser Road for 20 years and has seen parked cars sideswiped by speeders at night.
"There's a couple of bars down the street," he said. "People come racing down the street all the time. People do burnouts."
The wide, four-lane road is being cut down to one driving lane in each direction and will include a center turning lane and bike lanes.
"Overall, I think it's probably a good idea, although it'll put everybody into a tizzy when they make the change," resident Jeffrey Sulenski said.
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San Jose implemented a similar road diet plan in Willow Glen back in March 2015. But that was for a downtown shopping district to create a safer and more inviting street for pedestrians. People there were mixed on the results, but the city says it's working.
For a less crowded street such as Kooser, some don't agree with the change.
"But it's already congested during the daytime when people get out of school and all that," said resident A.J. Foye, who lives around the corner and thinks it'll steer drivers in another direction. "I don't see the point in it. That's a pretty wide road
to have one lane on each side. I don't even know what they'll do with the other part of the road. What are they going to make, parking?"
While street parking will stay intact on Kooser, other San Jose roads on the diet plan, such as Curtner and Union avenues, will lose some spots.
