Dear City Council Members, I'm writing to urge you to consider temporary traffic modifications that support social distancing, improve the ability of downtown business to operate safely, and improve pedestrian safety on neighborhood streets. I know that you and that city employees have a much better understanding of the details, but I urge you to consider the following: 1) closure of Santa Cruz Ave to cars would support social distancing among pedestrians downtown and allow downtown restaurants to expand into the street, allowing them to support county-mandated distance between tables and still operate at a profitable capacity. Some downtown restaurants are located on side streets off Santa Cruz Ave, and closure of half-block portions of these streets might make sense as well 2) having pedestrian crossings trigger automatically would allow people to cross safely without touching crossing buttons 3) following the example of Oakland and limiting the speed of cars to 5 mph on certain residential streets would enable people to walk safely in the streets, supporting social distancing as people avoid each other on sidewalks Thanks for considering! I know you have many tough decisions to make in these times, and hope that this is one of the easier ones! -Kathryn Todd The Willows Received on Tue May 19 2020 - 08:21:39 PDT
