Menlo Park City Council and Complete Streets Commission,
We are reaching out as employees of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory*, located in Menlo Park in relation to your Vision Zero Action Plan.
As you may know, there are two entrances to SLAC, one on Alpine Road (San Mateo County maintained) and one on Sand Hill Road. The entrance on Sand Hill Road is along one of the High-Crash Corridors identified in the staff report to the City Council on October 24, 2023, which is consistent with our experience on the road.
We are encouraged by and supportive of your vision to reduce traffic fatalities and critical injuries. With the Action Plan, we broadly encourage the City to prioritize the safety of those using the roads (whether walking, biking/scootering, using public transportation or driving) over allowing cars to move more quickly to their destinations. We note a few specific concerns and recommendations here:
* Difficulty with left turns where bikes must cross two lanes of traffic. This is particularly challenging for employees at SLAC, given the entrance to SLAC requires a left turn when coming up Sand Hill from Santa Cruz Ave.
* We advocate for bike boxes at intersections along Sand Hill and other similar intersections
* Cars, trucks, and buses stopping or parking in bike lanes, forcing bikes into the main lanes
* We advocate for protected bike lanes along Sand Hill and other similar intersections
Sincerely,
Natalie Geise, on behalf of the 22 SLAC employees signed below
*Our views represent that of the undersigned, not of our employer.
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Natalie Geise: student/employee at SLAC for 5+ years
“I bike to work from Palo Alto almost everyday and you need more gumption to cross the two lanes across Sand Hill to enter SLAC than to get up the hill itself”
Charles Troxel: Menlo Park resident and employee at SLAC
Ann Wang, Menlo Park resident and postdoc from Stanford working at SLAC.
Paul Jones: Menlo Park resident and employee at SLAC.
“I have stopped cycling to work due to road safety concerns, specifically the lack of protection for cyclists crossing Sand Hill Road and Alpine Road. I have also witnessed several near-misses in the area around the SLAC Alpine Gate, as pedestrians and cyclists attempt to cross to/from the Stanford Dish area.”
Alex Wallace: 13 year San Mateo County resident and employee at SLAC
Brendan O’Shea: SLAC Employee, San Mateo County Resident
Ryan McClanahan: Palo Alto resident and Employee at SLAC
“I routinely bike to work from Palo Alto to SLAC. I use Sandhill because there are wide designated bike lanes. However, I see daily mis-use of the bike lanes by motorists, from pulling into the lane too early for a right turn, to parking in the bike lane and forcing me and other cyclists into the street or sidewalk. Protecting the bike lanes with concrete bollards, or a full curb, would be a huge boon to bicycle commuters on Sandhill, and would assist with car traffic as more people would commute by bicycle because they feel safe doing so. The break away flex posts are not enough, because drivers can still drive through these and hit a cyclist”
Gabe Shutt: Professional Bicycle Courier
“Merging to turn left into SLAC on Sand Hill is not expected by cars even when signaling. Clearer signage at a minimum is needed. There was a fatality here in 2001, don’t let it happen again”
Anthony Fong: Employee at SLAC
“The Sand Hill entrance to SLAC requires bicyclists to cross two lanes of high speed traffic to access the protected left turn lane to the SLAC main gate.”
Junyang Xiang: Employee at SLAC:
Shamin Chowdhury: Employee at SLAC
Stefan Moeller: Employee at SLAC
Eric Konzelmann: Employee at SLAC
Christina Eshelman: Employee at SLAC
Leslie Hsiao: Employee at SLAC
Zachary Domke: Employee at SLAC
Raybel Almeida: SLAC Employee
Alysson Loo: Employee at SLAC
Silke Nelson: Employe at SLAC, San Mateo County resident
Michael Ehrlichman: Employee at SLAC
Diling Zhu: Employee at SLAC
Giulia Lanza: Employee at SLAC
