Dear Mr. Baile,Could you please contact Caltrans and review as soon as possible the timing/coordination of the O'Brien traffic light with Newbridge, US101.In the morning peak commute hours it is worse than ever to turn left from O'Brien Drive onto Willow Road.As you can see in the attached picture around 7.30AM, the flow is not moving and already backed up in the O'Brien/Newbridge section when the light is green to turn left from O'Brien to Willow. To make the situation even worse, the cars from Willow Road are also blocking the intersection and it takes about 20 to 30 min to get out of O'Brien Drive.Local street traffic in Menlo Park/East Palo Alto should be prioritized over transit traffic on the Willow corridor.Thank you very much in advance,Romain Taniere On Friday, December 1, 2017, 9:29:04 AM PST, Baile, Renato C Dear Mr. Tanière, It is my understanding that Caltrans is in the process of coordinating the Caltrans traffic signals between O’Brien Drive and Bay Road during the AM, PM, and Mid-day peak hours, including the new temporary signals at the Willow Road-101 Interchange. That should improve the traffic flow on Willow Road and ease the congestion on Willow Road at O’Brien Drive. Regarding the implementation of the all-red interval, we still have not received a new response from Caltrans beyond its previous response that it is not currently warranted on Willow Road at O’Brien Drive, at Ivy Drive, and at Hamilton Avenue. Regarding your suggestion to extend the No Parking restriction on O’Brien Drive, we will consider it and if we concur, we need to take it to the Menlo Park Complete Streets Commission and potentially, the City Council, for review and approval. Thanks, Rene C. Baile, PE,TE, Associate Transportation Engineer Public Works– Transportation Division 701 Laurel St. | Menlo Park, CA 94025 Direct 650-330-6775 | General 650-330-6770 | Fax 650-327-5497 rcbaile_at_(domainremoved) From: Romain Tanière [mailto:rtaniere_at_(domainremoved) Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2017 11:04 AM To: Baile, Renato C Cc: Angulo, Rich F Subject: Re: Traffic lights synchronization issue for side streets on Willow Road east of US101 Dear Mr. Baile and Menlo Park city staff, I was wondering if there was any status update in regards to the O'Brien/Willow traffic light timing from Caltrans (better synchronization and implementation of an all red-interval)? As you can see in the attached picture, today 29 Nov 2017 at 10AM it is impossible for more than one vehicle at the time to make a left from O'Brien to Willow unless you illegally block the intersection (sometimes at peak time, not even one vehicle can turn). Now, even in non peak hour, the traffic on O'Brien is backed up almost to Kelly Court. To ease the flow I would also suggest a parking re-zoning for a no parking zone on the right side of O'Brien drive from roughly 985 O'Brien drive to the intersection. This would allow vehicles to be in 2 lines, up to the traffic light (right now the 2 lines, no parking zone is not even barely from 965 O'Brien to the light but just a few feet from the corner Willow/O'Brien intersection). Vehicles that are parked on the street around 965-985 O'Brien make the congestion even worse and the 2hr parking zone is not even enforced in this area. This no parking-red curb painting should be easily and quickly implemented by the city of Menlo Park itself without the lengthy involvement from Caltrans. Thank you very much in advance for your feedback. Romain Taniere From: Romain Tanière To: "Baile, Renato C" Cc: "Angulo, Rich F" Sent: Wednesday, November 8, 2017 9:08 PM Subject: Traffic lights synchronization issue for side streets on Willow Road east of US101 Dear Mr. Baile and Menlo Park city staff, I previously brought up some safety/maintenance concerns that are yet to be resolved on the portion of Willow Road east of US101 (burnt light bulbs at Ivy and O’Brien, traffic light covers/black background missing which makes the lights hard to see in the full sun, traffic light on median divider not replaced yet at O’Brien, no all-red traffic light interval). In addition, it now looks like the traffic light pattern and synchronization has slightly changed in the last few weeks which creates some even more difficult situation from the side streets local traffic. At peak hour the portion of Willow Road between O’Brien and Newbridge is now completely saturated with cars and when the O’Brien light turns green, at most a couple of vehicles can make a left onto Willow Road (sometimes it is even impossible unless people turn and partially block the intersection until the traffic flows again). Unless the section is partially cleared between O’Brien and Newbridge it is not possible for O’Brien traffic to come onto Willow. Until a few weeks ago, the situation was much better because the Newbridge traffic light had been already green for a bit and the traffic was flowing on Willow towards US101 before the light at O’Brien was turning green for cars to turn left onto Willow I believe the new traffic lights at the US101 interchange are being tested/implemented right now so it would be great if the city transportation staff could do a field trip on site at peak hour in the morning to monitor the situation on the portion of Willow Road and the intersections east of US101 and ask Caltrans to re-synchronize the lights is a manner that it is not adversely affecting the local street traffic. Thank you very much in advance, Romain Taniere (image/jpeg attachment: WillowOBrien20180912_074406.jpg ) (image/png attachment: image003.png )
