Dear Council Members,
I write to you as an 18-year Menlo Park resident. I am also a Stanford University faculty physician who is the chief of pain management for the Stanford Children’s Hospital, a pediatrician, pediatric anesthesiologist, intensive care physician and pain management specialist. For the past year I have conducted my outpatient pain management practice three or four days a week from my home in Felton Gables between the hours of 8am and 6pm. The frequent Caltains passing north- and southbound create a very disruptive effect on my workday, and interrupts my patients and their parents while I attempt to provide healthcare by Telehealth, something likely to continue to a large extent even after the pandemic has abated.
It is time to finally do something about the train horns, before the Caltrain timetable doubles or triples train frequency, and actively pursue Quiet Zones for Menlo Park crossings. As a board certified pediatrician I can assure you these 100 db+ sounds are chronically harmful to the hearing health of children playing outdoors within 100 or more meters of the tracks and in our municipal park.
At a more personal level, the trains represent more than a mere nuisance to me and my neighbors. I can feel the effect of the stress of this frequent noise on my heart rate and blood pressure. Almost every day I must choose between fresh air in my home and deafening horns that disrupt my life and my work, or battening down the hatches so I can simply get my work done, carry on an uninterrupted conversation or enjoy a peaceful hour. In short, quiet time simply does not exist near the train corridor.
Quiet Zones are well within reach for the City of Menlo Park to figure out and implement in a short period of time, providing a massive improvement in the quality of life for so many, a reduction in local noise pollution, and less damage to the developing hearing of children. If this were air pollution, the city would be up in arms and acting immediately against the harm. The effect of noise pollution is less palpably obvious but its damage is just as pernicious. Please take a page from the city of Atherton, and the counties of Marin and San Diego. Let’s get Quiet Zones implemented. This is long overdue. The quality of life of hundreds of residents and their children across socioeconomic groups depends on this.
I have taken the liberty of attaching just 3 articles from thousands in the medical literature that bear upon this subject. The medical literature has hundreds if not thousands of articles describing the health effects of noise pollution on children’s learning, hypertension in children as well as adults, cardiovascular disease in adults, and even reduced years of life expectancy. I attempted to attach a few to underscore my request to the Council but I do not think the email was successfully transmitted to you with attachments; I would be happy to provide supporting literature if you so request.
Respectfully,
Elliot Krane
Elliot Krane • ekrane@gmail.com • +1.650.619.6472
