Mayor Wolosin,
Is this a computer generated response?
If not, it is astounding in its late arrival, its brevity and it’s disingenuousness.
Brielle Johnck
On Jul 13, 2023, at 10:11 AM, Wolosin, Jen wrote:
Thank you for your feedback.
[CMP_Email_Logo_100dpi_05d92d5b-e8e3-498f-93a6-d0da509bd602111111111.png]
Jen Wolosin
Mayor
City Hall - 2nd Floor
701 Laurel St.
tel 415-710-5838
menlopark.gov
*Note our emails have changed to @menlopark.gov
From: gabrielle johnck
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2023 1:28 PM
To: _CCIN
Subject: Fwd: Reject Middle Ave Undercrossing Design
Council Members
Bottom line is that the City has a stinker on its hands. The Middle Ave Caltrain bike/ped undercrossing should not be approved.
As an everyday cyclist who rides between Redwood City for Kaiser visits and Los Altos for my dentist, I have traveled across the Alma, the Caltrain tracks and El Camino Real countless times. I know the safest routes and each undercrossing of the train tracks.
A flawed Design
A 90 foot tunnel that is 15 feet beneath the street level is not a route I would ever choose. fraught with confusion are the approaches, the sharp turn into the tunnel, the distance to reach the other side and mishmash of arriving near the driveway of the Stanford project where cars enter and exit from El Camino Real. $28M bike/ped undercrossing is an unconscionable amount of money for a flawed and unappealing design.
Who will use it? Will parents want to send their children down through this tunnel? Will women use this 90 ft tunnel? Who will the users be? The Hillview students who ride from school in the afternoon stop on Santa Cruz Ave to gather; most cross El Camino at Santa Cruz Ave. or Oak Grove in packs. Much effort has already been made to provide striping and cues on Oak Grove for cyclists. Let’s keep the students outdoors, on the street where they are seen. What will be waiting for them in this 15 ft deep tunnel? We can count on the smell of urine, that’s for sure.
A long History of Bad Decisions In 1999 the Linfield neighborhood successfully convinced the Council to kill a $3M street-level bike/ped undercrossing at the foot of Willow Rd because they feared cyclists riding through their neighborhood. This site was where the tracks were 10 ft above the road allowing for a clear daylight view. This was the correct site and a reasonable price.
How the City got here The 2012 City Council sold us out. It approved a land-use plan that gave to Stanford increased density rights but denied the City’s right to require benefits for us residents. The Specific Plan said the University could build bigger buildings, which consequently increased its potential revenue for years and years. Meanwhile the City was left to beg Stanford for the mere $5M for the bike/ped undercrossing. Even the School District had no authority to require full payment for each child living in Stanford’s project attending Menlo park schools.
Bike/Ped Undercrossing and Grade Separations Share a Goal For 25 years the City has dragged its feet when making a decision regarding the Caltrain grade separations. Elevating the tracks would allow a route for both cars and cyclists/pedestrians to remain at street level. The combined costs of this flawed Middle Ave undercrossing and the quiet zone gates dodges the real problem and the obvious solutions. There is a solution that would provide safe crossing of the tracks for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians, with this piecemealing approach.
If the City is going to approve the Middle Ave undercrossing as designed because it provides Stanford with easy access to our Burgess park and library, this will be one of the worst decisions our City will have on its books.
Stop It’s time to give up on this terrible plan.
Brielle Johnck Former Menlo Park Environmental Commissioner
Menlo Park
