Honorable City Council,
Lets do this! I bike commute the Middle Avenue corridor (for shopping downtown, errands, meetings, and recreational rides) on an almost daily basis and I am so excited to see it become a safer place for all travelers. I urge you to push forward with Option 1 and remove parking from the roadway altogether. It is truly the only way to create a wide path of travel so that all uses feel safe. As a regular cyclist I know what the data says, I am more likely to be injured by a car door than I am by a moving car.
Our public rights-of-way are just that -- public. These are shared spaces that should be used for the greater good of creating safe, accessible, usable transportation spaces for all. Parking a private car in a public space serves so few, especially when folks have required garages and driveways for that. Lets make this street an amazing amenity for Menlo Park residents of all ages with a wide, safe, parking-free space for bikes!
As a resident of Palo Alto, I can definitively tell you that temporary parking bans during school hours do not work. Drivers do not see, or simply ignore, the signage and then it becomes an enforcement issue (for which our police department has little capacity to deal with).
Thank you for your efforts. The time has come to make this a safe street to ride bikes!
Amie Ashton
Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition Board Chair
