To: Menlo Park City Council,
I attended the listen and learn meeting at Jack Lyle Park on Sunday April 27 where Betsy Nash, Jen Wise and Sally Cole presented the proposal for traffic calming on Middle Avenue. I live on Olive Street and am very supportive of traffic calming measures in areas where there are pedestrians & bicyclists. However, traffic is a fluid system. If you over rotate on calming the streets in one area, you will push traffic to other areas and create new problems. I do remember the Santa Cruz Avenue traffic calming debacle and I would like to see the City avoid a similar disaster.
Based on the plan presented, I would support:
* installing the Flashing Beacons but no raised crosswalks at 1). Blake street, 2). Arbor Road (between Middle and Bay laurel), 3) Cotton street.
* I do not support installing speed bumps as I believe this will push traffic to the small neighborhood streets that have no traffic calming measures. This will create unintended consequences.
* It seems like 2 speed feedback signs are excessive, however I believe these are mobile and can be relocated as needed - ?
I would note that removing the speed bumps from the scope will also reduce the budget and get the total cost closer to the grant funded amount of $1.2M.
Thank you for consideration of my comments.
Respectfully,
Marnie
Marnie Foody
marniefoody@gmail.com
650 793 0645
