Dear Menlo Park Council Members,
I urge you to support the current Coleman bike improvement proposal. I spent a decade of my life as a Menlo Park Laurel, Encinal, and Menlo-Atherton High School parent advocating for a safe route to school on Coleman, between 2005 and 2015.
My children rode their bikes to go to Laurel, Encinal and M-A for years and Coleman was so unsafe that I became a bike commissioner to better support road improvements. I was part of 2 safe routes to school, one for Laurel and the other one for Encinal. Each time, even though the city applied for grants and invested in beautiful renderings of bike friendly solutions for Coleman, we failed to have our voices heard because of the politics involved with the multi jurisdictional status of Coleman.
The safety of our children, as well as the carbon footprint of hundreds of students has been ignored for too long. I look at it as a thorn in the Menlo Park-San Mateo County- Atherton bike system, and if Menlo Park wants to live up to its Gold standard of bike friendly city, Coleman has to be a priority.
I am more than impressed to see this council willing to move forward with such a proposal, and along with many other parents who worked so hard to get this issue heard in the past, I hope to hear within my life time that Coleman got fixed.
Sincerely,
Laure Laprais
Former Menlo Park Bike commissioner 2005-2009
MP parent and resident from 1996-2024
Now living at 28396 Meadow Mesa Ln, Escondido, CA 92026
650-213-6910
