City Council Members,
It’s extremely encouraging our city is making progress toward making Middle Ave safer and more usable for all road users. We’re a family who lives in Allied Arts with two kids who bike to Oak Knoll almost every school day. We use Middle Ave. regularly with cars and bikes (and sometimes as pedestrians).
The current state of Middle is a ticking time bomb of car / bike interaction. We’re specifically encouraging our young kids to use this route as a safe route for school and also, through road design, forcing these kids to swerve around parked cars into traffic on a road that’s designed to give motorists the feeling they should be going fast.
All improvements can help, but I strongly believe option 1 is best aligned with our town’s values of making our roads safe and usable for all. Option 1 of removing parking on both sides is the only solution that actually stops the problem of cyclists swerving into the car lanes to avoid parking cars and randomly opened card doors.
One additional consideration is requesting that residents place garbage cans on the edge of the car lane (in the buffer between cycling and car lanes). I drive Middle a lot. I’d much rather that a moment of distraction mean that I take out a neighbor’s blue recycling can than their first grader.
Finally, if we do, as a town, choose option 2 or 3 with street parking, can we please consider adding weather sheltered bike parking out in the street. If we do decide we all want to use this shared resource of our streets for storage we should at least include storage for all modes of transportation.
That said, I strongly hope we’re able to pursue option 1 with safety of all (particularly Oak Knoll kids) prioritized over storage for some.
Respectfully your neighbor,
Tim Gernitis
