Dear Council Members and Staff,
I’m writing to express my concern regarding the Middle Avenue Traffic Calming Capital Improvement Project. While I support the goal of improving safety on Middle Avenue, this project must include simultaneous traffic calming measures for parallel residential streets in Allied Arts, like College, Partridge, Cambridge, Harvard, and Creek, as well as the cross-streets, Arbor and University.
I live on Partridge Avenue. Unlike neighboring streets, Partridge Avenue has no traffic calming initiatives despite having double the households of neighboring streets and senior housing. In addition, the gas station on the corner at El Camino Real attracts non-resident traffic to and from Central Menlo Park down our residential street. Without a traffic calming plan that takes all streets into consideration traffic flows down the path of least resistance. Partridge Avenue feels like that path.
I urge the Council to include network-effect traffic calming measures for Allied Arts in conjunction with the Middle Avenue project. This is best practice that should be applied to any corridor traffic calming effort. It is about protecting vulnerable road users and keeping residential streets safe and livable.
Thank you for your time and attention on this issue.
Sincerely,
Peter Cook
