Dear City Council members,
I’m writing a quick follow-up to my last email of 9/30. At noon today, my husband and I were stopped at the stop sign on Olive, waiting to turn onto Santa Cruz Avenue. We saw a car that was driving straight on Santa Cruz Avenue ignore the crossing guard and drive straight through the crosswalk at 35 mph when a kid was on one side preparing to cross and the guard was feet away with his stop sign up. It is shocking how many incidents like this have happened since school started this year. It is only a matter of time before someone, likely a child, is seriously injured. This is not acceptable. We need regular police patrols at pickup and drop-off at our area schools as soon as possible.
I was glad to see several police officers on bicycles last week at that same crosswalk on Santa Cruz Avenue, but respectfully I have to wonder whether officers on bicycles are capable of enforcing traffic rules with drivers of cars. Certainly, children walking and biking are not the best at following all the rules and could use reminders, but it seems that the most effective way to address this problem of cars hitting or nearly hitting children is to police the drivers.
Thanks again.
Jennifer Buddin, mother of an Oak Knoll 5th grader (who bikes to and from school everyday) and a student in high school
1750 Bay Laurel Drive
> On Sep 30, 2021, at 5:45 PM, Jenny Buddin wrote:
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> Dear City Council members,
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> I would like to add my voice to those asking for increased traffic patrols around Menlo Park — particularly during heavy school commute times. I have a fifth grader who bikes to and from Oak Knoll every day, and I am alarmed at how many reports I keep seeing about motorists hitting children on bikes. We can do better than this. It is clear that this trend has not improved at all with time, so we can no longer dismiss it by saying that people are just adjusting to kids being in school again. The pattern is clear and worrisome, and the city is on notice. It is past time for action to be taken. Please get some patrols onto our streets ASAP to protect our children.
>
> Thank you,
> Jennifer Buddin
> 1750 Bay Laurel Drive
>
>
