Fixing a Dangerous Intersection: 13 Crashes at University & Purdue in 5 Years

Executive Summary

There have been 13 recorded vehicle collisions at the University Ave & Purdue Ave intersection in East Palo Alto, CA in the last 5.5 years (2020 to June 2025). This is currently a non-signalized intersection with a 35mph posted speed limit, and collisions frequently occur when cars traveling westbound on Purdue Ave make a left or right onto University Ave and get broadsided (t-boned). Not only is this a dangerous collision pattern, but accidents also cause 1 lane or both lanes to get shut down for a period of time, which exacerbates traffic for East Palo Alto residents, Palo Alto commuters, and East Bay commuters. Because CalTrans manages this section of University Ave, I recommend that CalTrans consider installing a signalized traffic intersection at University Ave & Purdue Ave.

• Total Crashes: 13 (2020 - June 2025)
• Average per Year: 2.6 crashes
• Peak Year: 2022 (4 crashes)
• Most Recent: 3 crashes in 2025 (ongoing), on track to see 6 crashes when prorated.

Problem

I used the TIMS Berkeley SWITRS visualization tool, which showed 12 vehicle collisions between 1/1/25 to 3/31/25. Because there is a lag time (months or sometimes up to 2 years) until when SWITRS gets updated info, I cross referenced vehicle collision data I obtained from the East Palo Alto police department which included another collision data point on 5/26/25. The CSV I've attached below was exported from SWITRS.

SWITRS doesn't have data on the 5/26/25 crash yet, which was in the East Palo Alto police department's dataset - so there have actually been 12 total crashes in the past 5 years at this intersection.

Annual Crash Data

Crashes per Year at University & Purdue Intersection

4 |          ████
3 |     ████ ████      ████
2 |     ████ ████ ████ ████
1 |████ ████ ████ ████ ████
0 +─────────────────────────
   2020 2021 2022 2023 2025

Conclusion

I plan to share out this blog post to our city's public works department, CalTrans, Menlo Park's public works department, and potentially our county board of supervisor representative and others. This isn't just an East Palo Alto problem; any accidents in this corridor significantly impact traffic along Highway 101 and University Ave which regularly backs over a mile into Palo Alto on weekday rush hours. Improving the safety at this intersection will benefit driver in San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda County, and other East Bay counties.