Dear Mayor and City Councilmembers-
I am writing to whole-heartedly support the middle avenue undercrossing
project. As a bicycle commuter, I ride from the bayside to Oak Knoll (and
back, which is also important) every school day. I also use my bike to run
errands in town, reducing by one the cars sitting in traffic. I will first
echo what Ken Kershner said about the importance of the crossing.
I will add that almost every day, a car turns right directly in front of me
without even looking for bikes when they turn right onto Alma from
Ravenswood. Its a predictable near miss and it happens nearly every day.
I would argue this is one of the spots in town that keeps more parents from
letting perfectly capable middle schoolers from riding their bikes to
school. In fact, because of all the other bike infrastructure improvements
we have made, the Alma/Ravenswood intersection is easily the one where Im
most likely to be hit by a car not looking for bikes in the traffic lane
they are crossing. For what its worth, Ringwood is the next danger spot.
But, with good planning and creative thinking, along with some new
developments, we have to capacity to create bike infrastructure that
provides the most direct route from one side of town to the other and the
middle ave undercrossing is a key component of that dream. Imagine if the
people moving into those new homes all felt safe and faster using bikes to
get around our mostly flat town with year round bikeable weather.
Plan for the future. You know the tunnel is the right move. Be brave.
Jacqui Cebrian
Member of Complete Streets Commission (speaking on my own behalf)
Bicycle commuter
Teacher at Oak Knoll
Resident of Belle Haven neighborhood on the north shore of Menlo Park
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What Im reading/just finished (audio/print/ebook):
[image: Lula Deans Little Library of Banned Books: A Novel By Kirsten
Miller Cover Image]. [image: Pocket Bear By Katherine Applegate Cover Image]
[image: Troubling Tonsils! (Jasper Rabbits Creepy Tales!) By Aaron
Reynolds, Peter Brown (Illustrator) Cover Image]
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