>
> Mayor and Council members,
>
> I support making the Coleman Avenue pilot permanent. The data in the staff
> report make the case: bicyclists at the two counted intersections went
> from 536 to 648, vehicle volumes fell on every counted segment, and 79% of
> survey respondents want the pilot kept.
>
> My concern is that Council will not see from the staff report what the
> Complete Streets Commission actually recommended, or why.
>
> On Aug. 27 the Commission voted 6-0, with one commissioner absent, to
> recommend that Council "make the Coleman Avenue Pilot permanent; install
> bollards in the bicycle lane at speed humps and crosswalk locations;
> extend the speed cushions to the edge of the bicycle lane; and direct
> staff to evaluate narrowing the southbound travel lane to 10 feet to
> provide a bicycle lane buffer similar to the Middle Avenue design." That
> is the motion as recorded in the draft minutes in the Commissions Sept. 9
> packet (Attachment E-1). Staff Report 26-151-CC paraphrases the motion,
> does not attach the minutes, and drops both the 10-foot figure and the
> Middle Avenue reference. The resolution in Attachment A makes permanent
> only the parking removal and the bike lane. If Council wants any part of
> the Commissions recommendation, it will have to give that direction from
> the dais.
>
> The bollards and the cushion change are one idea, not two. The staff
> report says the City standard runs the speed cushion into the bike lane
> "to prevent regular vehicles from driving into the bike lane to avoid the
> cushion." So staff agrees that drivers will swerve into the bike lane if
> they can. The Citys answer is to make every kid on a bike and cargo bike
> ride over the cushion. The Commissions answer is a bollard at each
> cushion, which blocks the swerve and lets the cushion stop at the bike
> lane stripe, so people on bikes keep a flat path. Bollards at the
> crosswalks keep cars out of the lane at the points where people cross. The
> photos submitted with public comment at the Aug. 27 meeting show cars
> parked in the lane with kids riding next to them.
>
> The people who use this lane asked for this. In the survey comments
> (Attachment F, pages J-2.27 through J-2.43), respondents describe the
> cushions in the bike lane as a hazard for young riders and cargo bikes,
> and some ask for bollards by name. Staffs proposed fix changes the
> cushion from rubber to asphalt. It does not move it out of the bike lane.
>
> Staffs objections to bollards are about maintenance: drivers hit them,
> and sweepers cant reach behind them. A bollard that drivers keep hitting
> marks a place where drivers are entering the bike lane, which is the
> problem it is there to solve. The Commission asked for bollards at the
> cushions and crosswalks, not along the length of the lane, so the sweeper
> can still reach the lane between them. The report gives no cost for
> bollards or for the cushion change, and no maintenance data from other
> Menlo Park installations.
>
> This matters now because staff plans to replace the rubber cushions with
> asphalt. Rubber can be moved. Asphalt poured across the bike lane will be
> there for years.
>
> On the southbound lane, the Commission asked staff to evaluate a 10-foot
> lane with a bike lane buffer, similar to Middle Avenue. It did not ask
> Council to build it. Staff lists reasons against narrowing (queued cars,
> the door zone for southbound riders, about $13,000 in thermoplastic) but
> offers no evaluation of the option the Commission named. Those tradeoffs
> are real. They should be weighed with a drawing and numbers, not a
> paragraph.
>
> I would ask Council to adopt the resolution with two additions. First,
> direct staff to install bollards at the speed cushions and crosswalks and
> to end the asphalt cushions at the bike lane edge, as the Commission
> recommended. If Council wants the cost first, direct staff to bring it
> back before the asphalt goes in. Second, direct staff to evaluate the
> 10-foot southbound lane with a bike lane buffer, using the Middle Avenue
> design as the reference, and report back to the Commission and Council.
>
> I voted for the Commissions recommendation. I am writing as one
> commissioner, not on behalf of the Commission.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Matthew Rascoff
>
> Complete Streets Commission, Menlo Park
>
