Dear City Council, Thank you for inviting us to give staff our input before your TIA impact guidelines discussion. Although we are the chair and vice chair of the Complete Streets Commission, we are representing only our own opinions and not those of the whole commission. We both support the recommendations that staff will make this evening. We did have one additional piece of input, however. We recognize that traffic congestion has been a concern for many residents, leading the council to request that staff retain intersection level-of-service (LOS) as an additional local impact metric despite the shift to vehicle miles traveled (VMT) for CEQA purposes. But LOS only measures convenience to motor vehicles, and conveys no information about safety/access/convenience to other modes of transportation (walking, biking, public transit, etc.). Moreover, localized LOS mitigation measures can often come at the expense of bike/pedestrian safety and comfort, which will make VMT reduction challenging. Given the fact that many of the VMT impact-reducing measures are about transitioning employees/residents out of single-occupancy motor vehicles, we believe Menlo Park should adopt additional metrics to evaluate impacts (positive and negative) to pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users–ideally sooner than the next General Plan update. This will enable our city to more honestly evaluate the tradeoffs in a given area or intersection, especially in the context of our climate action plan, our Vision Zero aspirations, and our local commitment to complete streets. As commissioners, we would be delighted to support staff and council in researching and evaluating the various options (e.g. various bike/ped level of service metrics, Walk Score, various ped/bike safety indices, etc.) Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Katie Behroozi, Chair, Complete Streets Commission Adina Levin, Vice Chair, Complete Streets Commission -- Katie Behroozi 650.804.1812 (cell) Received on Tue Jun 16 2020 - 15:34:32 PDT
