Dear City Council,
I have been aware of the Coleman/Ringwood Avenue study and have participated in the surveys sent out. In general, I have found very little information on the projects final recommendations until this most recent agenda posting. I was very surprised to see the vote on the table tonight about the recommendations:
1. Proceed with implementation of a pilot bikeway installation on Coleman Avenue in the City, which would include removal of parking on one side;
2. Proceed with implementing traffic calming measures in the City, as quickly as possible;
3. Proceed with implementing an all-way stop sign at Coleman Avenue and Santa Monica Avenue;
4. Authorize the Mayor to approve and sign a letter to San Mateo County advocating for implementation of a one-way pilot on Coleman Avenue between the City/County border and Ringwood Avenue in order to provide space for people walking and biking; and
5. Return to City Council to accept the Coleman-Ringwood Avenues Transportation Study final report.
I am in favor of the long-term measures supported by the report #5. I am in favor of the short term measures that are reasonable (2 & 3) to solve the congestion situation created by school commute traffic two hours a day on schooldays. I was shocked, however by the short-term suggestion, particularly #4 as this as not even a short-term solution that the report found had any significant support for, as noted on page 13 of the report:
The team also presented other pilot options, including: * turn restrictions during school drop-off and pick-up periods; * one-way operation westbound through the County section of Coleman Avenue; and * installing temporary traffic calming elements. These other alternatives did not receive support during outreach for the pilot options. Some outreach participants strongly preferred the pilot while others strongly preferred a long-term design alternative.
First, lets look at the data which should drive what problems we are trying to solve for. The Study collected and analyzed data and decisions should be made based on data. Looking at the safety data of the 5-year collision study, the problems with accidents are not attributable to the area of county-owned road, so the "solution" of making the traffic one way is not based on the data (see W-Trans Memorandum Oct. 12, 2022, page 8). As the data shows, while the automobile collision incidence is higher than average, 9 of 12 collisions were on the Willow/Coleman place side, and 11 of 12 involved auto-auto or auto-to-immobile objects. Over the five years, of the 12 collisions the only 1 that involved a cyclist was in the intersection of Santa Monica and Coleman Ave. This is indeed a difficult turn and would benefit from an all way stop at the crosswalk as the City is proposing in #3. Overall, the data from the study shows that there is no data to support that the county-side of Coleman has caused accidents or injuries to cyclists or pedestrians based on the 5 years of data studied. The types of accidents that have occurred will in no way be remedied by making Coleman a one-way street.
The amount of time that the county area of Coleman is congested is limited to school commute hours. This is less than 2 hours a day, only M-F on school days, and not in the summer. Cutting off a critical access road to large parts of the community (the Coleman Apartments, Vintage Oaks, Seminary Oaks, and the Willows for school routes) is excessive as a solution. It is particularly extreme when the city has not tried other alternatives first, such as additional all-way stops (at Santa Monica, Berkeley Ave, and Arlington Ave). Adding these three stop signs and traffic bumps would go a long way to calming traffic on the street but still provide access.
Making Coleman a one-way street will transfer traffic to Bay Rd, but there is no way to access impacted neighborhoods without going all the way back to congested Willow & Bay and traveling back up Willow. The alternative route is that traffic will be routed on Ringwood, past the high school, onto Middlefield (now only a one-lane road). People will turn left (legally) onto Seminary Drive (a more dangerous street for cars and cyclists, because it is narrow with many blind curves) and cut through to Seminary Park. Or they will make an illegal turn off of Middlefield onto Santa Monica to cut through there. This solution adds to the congestion that our roads are experiencing. I am trying to understand how the City can expect us to trust that they can put a transportation plan in place to alleviate the congestion issues that will arise from our necessary housing density plan when this is the solution they have.
Again, the study does not even propose this solution as an acceptable option based on feedback from residents. I urge the city to remove #4 from the list, first attempt the more reasonable recommendations based on data, and then study the impacts while focusing on the long term solution proposed in the plan.
Furthermore, solution #1 is also excessive in its current form for two reasons. First, the people in the apartments do not have enough parking spaces available. I ask the city modify #1 to simply limit parking on the street DURING SCHOOL COMMUTE HOURS or even during the daytime (when people are at work) is a much more reasonable solution than eliminating parking all together. This would allow school kids to have room to bike to school but still allow overnight parking when the road is not busy. Second, a full access bike lane is excessive as there is another bike route that is widely used right next to Coleman, Gilbert Avenue. Gilbert is wide and accessible to Coleman via Santa Monica. Bikes can (and do) choose to use that alternative and is a safer route than Coleman, and is no more than a block out of the way.
In this time of going to extremes, I urge the city to make decisions that are reasonable for the problems we are trying to solve, that are based on data studied, that dont overly restrict the use of key resources and add to congestion, without first trying other reasonable solutions.
Cheers,
Sara
Sara Filipek
787 Gilbert Ave
Menlo Park, CA 94025
saraefilipek@outlook.com
510-912-5405
