Dear City Park Council,
Im writing on behalf of a number of residents of the apartment complex at 908 Middle Ave, where many of us have lived for over 15 years. We wanted to share our thoughts on the proposed plans.
Why we park on the street: The apartment complexes on Middle, near University, only give residents a single parking space but most of us have multiple adults who work in the area and we require two vehicles -- our second cars end up with permits on the street. We also have no guest parking, which means our caregivers, babysitters and elderly family members rely on the street parking to park nearby. If you were to remove parking from outside our apartment, the nearest safe place to park is Fremont Street, a 3-5 minute walk.
We have residents with medical needs: Some of our residents have medical disabilities that require frequent care. Michael, one of my neighbors, frequently relies on being able to have a caregiver park on Middle Ave. His care would be much harder without parking close-by. Walking to Fremont Street would be very difficult for him.
Consider a crosswalk at Yale Rd: if parking is removed from both sides of the street, Yale Road would be our closest street to park but it currently is not planned to have a crosswalk. I would not feel comfortable if our babysitter parked on Yale and tried to cross Middle with our child without a crosswalk.
Consider no parking from University/Middle to the first driveway: It is very difficult to pull out of the driveway at 908 Middle Ave when cars are parked to the left of our driveway. Cars are zooming out of the University/Middle intersection and it would be much safer if we could see all the bikes and cars coming out of the intersection.
Option 1 is overall more dangerous to the neighborhood: The cars that park at the apartment complexes and the church arent disappearing -- they have to park somewhere. The safest plan is one in which you control the parking and mitigate safety concerns -- the new stop signs, raised / lighted crosswalks, and bike lanes will make Middle Ave the safest place. Removing parking from both sides of Middle is going to move all the parked cars to the side streets. Which means...
The side streets become less safe: Moving the parked cars to the side streets is more dangerous than if the cars were allowed to park on Middle with its safety precautions. The side streets have none of the safety methods -- no sidewalks, no crosswalks, no bike lanes. The kids who live on the side streets have to get to Middle Ave somehow, and making the side streets more dangerous is going to be a disaster. If I cant park on the street outside my apartment, Ill move to a side street. And Im going to work at the same time as the kids are biking to school. Youve all seen situations where a kid zooms out of their driveway just as a car is coming down the street. Without bike lanes -- thats dangerous!
More parked cars on the side streets are dangerous to pedestrians. We go for walks every day on the side streets and theres no crosswalks or sidewalks. More parked cars on these streets is dangerous. And dangerous for all the kids playing basketball, skateboarding or running around with their friends.
Cars parked on Middle wont actually be more dangerous to bikers: Last week we heard from a neighbor whose daughter was in danger because of a construction vehicle on Middle/San Mateo -- but she failed to account for all the new safety measures. The bike lane, stop sign and raised crosswalks all would have made her child safe. Moving the construction vehicle to the side street would be more dangerous for her child.
Other cities have done this and regretted it: We should learn from other cities around the Bay that removed parking from both sides of the street. Emeryville, for example, removed parking from both sides of 41st street and the parents were so upset by the safety concerns this created that t they had to undo the changes and installed controlled parking (parking in certain places, at specific times).
Cars break the law anyways: Cars are going to temporarily park in a no-parking zone anyways. A babysitter, Uber driver, UPS/Fedex driver is going to stop and make the street more dangerous. The safest plan is one that controls where and when the parking happens. A blanket ban on parking doesnt allow cars to safely park temporarily.
These plans dont consider the full route: Why are we not considering bike lanes on Oak and Olive? The kids who bike to school dont magically teleport from Middle to school -- they have to ride on Oak and Olive as well, neither of which have sidewalks or bike lanes. The cars that make biking dangerous also travel on these roads. How is it that these plans fail to take into account the full route that kids will be traveling to get to school? If you go with Option 1, we need sidewalks and bike lanes on all the side streets so the kids can leave their houses and get to school with safety measures along their entire route.
Please do not consider option 1. Its the most dangerous for the neighborhood and detrimental to those of us who rely on street parking. Please consider options that allow us to park overnight and on weekends while also making the road safer for pedestrians and bikers alike.
Thank you,
-Aaron Meyers
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Aaron Meyers | Product Manager | Camera + Photos | mobile: 203.803.5649 | email: aaron_meyers@apple.com
