Dear City Council Members,
I understand the mission of the Complete Streets Commission is essentially to promote bicycle lanes, but that doesn’t mean you need to rubber-stamp their every suggestion. Some may be good; others not. The one regarding a permanent bike lane on Ravenswood is not.
In general, “road diets” where you eliminate lanes for cars make things more dangerous for drivers and bicyclists alike.
We already have issues with Ravenswood getting so backed up that many people give up on crossing between west and east Menlo Park altogether.
Messing with Ravenswood by permanently decreasing lanes will make this much worse, and make accidents likelier, including cars getting stuck on the Caltrain tracks, as has happened in the past. This happens due to gridlock on Ravenswood, which the plan to eliminate a lane there will only make worse.
Please stop trying to fix what isn’t broken!
If you read the results of the consultant’s questionnaire, a high percentage of people attested that the lane closure made traffic much worse, and made Ravenswood less safe, so the bicycle lane project should have been scrapped at that point. Furthermore, most of the kids who bike to Hillsdale don’t use the pilot bike lane as some residents have pointed out.
Below are a few salient comments from the citys outreach to our residents.
e. Much slower and/or
less reliable
Congestion is much worse when the caltrain is passing. The missing car lane makes traffic
back up on both sides of Laurel and when the railroad signals are going, it often takes 2 full
traffic light cycles before I can turn left. I hate it.
e. Much slower and/or
less reliable
It has screwed up traffic and made those who have to get out on Noel a nightmare. As
soon as my lease is up I’ll move.
e. Much slower and/or
less reliable
It was a horrible idea, if creates much more congestion and gives you less time to get in
what lane you need to be in at el camino light.
This item should NOT be on the Consent Calendar!
I urge you to pull it off and to do more outreach to the community as many of us missed receiving notification and therefore missed the time to comment.
Most of our residents drive, and Ravenswood is THE way to get to the library, Menlo Atherton High, the freeway, etc. And for those who live on the east side, Ravenswood is their way to get to the downtown business district where you want them to spend their money.
Wreck Ravenswood and they’ll go to Palo Alto instead. Beware unintended consequences.
Sincerely,
Cherie Zaslawsky
