Dear Menlo Park City Council,
On your meeting of February 14, 2023, Regular Business item I1 proposes eliminating parking on Middle Avenue. I oppose eliminating that parking and ask that the proposal be rejected.
Ive lived in West Menlo Park for over 29 years, at 1854 Doris Drive, in District 5. Given the location of my house, I regularly drive on Middle Avenue to get to El Camino Real, either to head south to Palo Alto or to get to the Safeway at Middle and El Camino. Thus, Ive had decades of experience observing the traffic patterns on Middle Avenue.
Middle Avenue is a broad street with lots of visibility. With its wide bike lanes, the street effectively has two lanes in each direction. People driving cars can easily spot bicyclists riding on the street, and steer around them when needed. Thats the case even if a car parked in the bike lane forces a bicyclist to temporarily move into the traffic lane. In 29 years, Ive never observed a driver on Middle Avenue coming close to hitting a bicyclist.
The proposal to eliminate parking on Middle Avenue thus solves a "problem" that doesnt exist. However, eliminating parking would create other problems. People would have to park on the side streets instead of Middle. Many of those side streets are quite narrow, so adding more cars to those narrow streets would cause dangerous conditions to both bicyclists and pedestrians, who would have to travel in the middle of those streets. The resulting congestion of adding more parked cars to the side streets would also decrease the quality of life, and perhaps even property values, for the residents of those streets. How many of the proponents of the parking ban actually live either on Middle Avenue, or close to it on one of the side streets?
For these reasons, I request that the Council vote down Regular Business item I1.
Regards,
Michael Barclay
1854 Doris Drive
Menlo Park, CA 94025
(650) 853-1711
