Dear City Council and Staff:
Thank you for your hard work and thorough analysis of Middle Ave in the service of a safer corridor for bicycle commuters, pedestrians and automobiles. I am writing to strongly encourage the selection of Option 1, removing parking on both sides of the street.
Middle Ave is heavily used by children on their way to and from Oak Knoll and HillView schools and should be made as safe as possible.
I commend the city staff and their extensive outreach, which determined, on average, that every resident along Middle Ave had a driveway they could accommodate almost 4 cars. That would seem to be plenty to allow for cleaning services, gardeners contractors, etc without having to park on the street. I both drive and bicycle on Middle Ave regularly and see very low demand for on-street parking.
Prior visionary city councils have courageously removed on-street parking from Santa Cruz Ave, University Ave and Oak Grove Ave to the benefit of our entire community, reducing car speeds, greatly improving sight-lines and safety for all users, and encouraging non-motorized travel.
As a city that purports to have a climate action plan and a Vision Zero mandate, let’s make those plans credible by creating safe and attractive facilities for all roadway users, not just automobiles.
We should also include removal of parking in front of Nealon Park, where parallel parking makes no sense to me since Staff concluded that plenty of parking is available on the side and behind the park, even at peak hours. Parallel parking would force bicycles to maneuver awkwardly around the parked cars and contend with park users crossing their path to access the playground. Bicycles that want to continue straight past the automobiles will be exposed to dooring. This plan seems to be something out of the 1970s.
Let’s select Option 1 in tomorrow night’s meeting and continue building on the great progress we have made so far for all Menlo Park roadway users.
Respectfully,
Bill Kirsch
Sent from my iPhone
