Dear Councilmembers,
Thank you so much for your work to create this east-west bike route. The professionally collected data, pre- and post-pilot, shows
that the Oak Grove Bike Route is a net positive for our community in so many ways--encouraging more bicycling while reducing
collisions.
However, we can do even better by adding the key missing link: Getting student bicyclists to Hillview safely. The original pilot
route does not connect Oak Grove with the bicycle lanes on Santa Cruz Ave. As we can see from the data, bicyclists are not using
Crane to get to Santa Cruz. Instead, they are continuing on Oak Grove past the designated bike route to the T-stop with University
and continuing on University. It is easy to see why, because it is the most straightforward route.
Here's a video of Hillview students biking the route (jump to minute 5:50 for the intersection with Crane):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN7BLUkP7y8&feature=youtu.be [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN7BLUkP7y8&feature=youtu.be]
Let's listen to what the data is telling us about real-world use of the route and fix the obvious issues. Please make the Oak
Grove Bike Route permanent and ask city staff to look into a small but critical phase 2.
Thanks again for helping our youngest residents get around town safely!
Lydia LeeBike Menlo ParkComplete Streets Commissioner
