From: Cliff Chambers <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2023 9:45 AM
To: Kamei, Ellen <[email protected]>; Matichak, Lisa <[email protected]>; Hicks, Alison <[email protected]> Cc: Lo, Ria <[email protected]>; Cameron, Dawn
<[email protected]>; Nguyen, Hoa <[email protected]>; Gonzales, Robert <[email protected]>; Arango, Ed <[email protected]>; Whyte, Brandon <[email protected]> Subject: California Street Complete Street, Pilot Project
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Chairperson Kamei, Council Member Matichak, and Council Member Hicks:
I am writing to express strong support for the California Complete Street Pilot Project. I urge the Council Transportation Committee (CTC) to expeditiously approve the recommendation for staff to proceed with final design in order for construction to start in the Summer of 2024.
Staff has had excellent responses to public comments and BPAC input by adding pilot planters during this phase with the hope of making this a green complete street when the project is evaluated for permanent status. Also, I am quite pleased with addition of the third mid-block crossing for the pilot project. While performance criteria for evaluation are not presented in this iteration, I am pleased that staff will present the evaluation criteria before the project construction starts in the summer of 2024. Finally, I am pleased that different vertical treatments will be tested in different segments along the corridor. I would like to thank staff for responding positively to community input on all of these pilot project enhancements that will make the project something we can all be proud of.
I have been a regular advocate for complete streets since the tragic death of William Ware in June of 2012 near Escuela and California. The project has successfully evolved from a one block segment to the full corridor between Showers Drive and Shoreline Blvd. The road diet, protected intersections, midblock crossings, parking protected bike lanes, and green planters can now all be evaluated in a comprehensive manner along the full corridor. It’s taken a long time to get here, and i sincerely hope you approve the project now so there is no more delay in implementation.
As a couple of final notes, I am hopeful that the City is establishing a database of vertical treatment application for other projects like the Castro Street near Graham Middle School are implemented. This will enable staff to shorten the list and eliminate vertical treatments that have not worked well in other parts of the City. Finally, I hope that the CTC provides direction to staff to come back with evaluation criteria that expand beyond traditional traffic engineering metrics. Yes, safety criteria are a top priority, but bike user, auto user, and pedestrian user experiences are also extremely important. Does the increased comfort and improved safety for bicycling along the corridor result in new bicycle users along the corridor? Increased bike utilization by residents along the corridor? Other similar criterion should also be considered.. While such an evaluation is more complex, the $30 million investment in the permanent green complete street and expansion to other corridors such as Rengstorff will be well worth the investment in a more robust evaluation.
Unfortunately, I will traveling on October 2nd and will be unable to attend the meeting.
Thanks for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Cliff Chambers
Resident of Mountain View
From: Kevin Ma <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, October 2, 2023 1:00 PM
To: Kamei, Ellen <[email protected]>; Hicks, Alison <[email protected]>; Matichak, Lisa <[email protected]> Cc: , Public Works <[email protected]>
Subject: CTC Item 5.1 - California Street Pilot
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Dear Members of the Council Transportation Committee:
As an individual, I write in support of the staff recommendation for the California Street Pilot Complete Street Improvements. I live within eyesight-distance to California/Ortega and bike to downtown regularly; however, I ride on Latham instead given how fast cars drive on California and how the cars in the shared bike-parking lane force bikers to the travel lanes.
I am supportive of testing out different vertical element treatments in order to demonstrate their real-world differences, though all of them are better than hoping paint alone can prevent injuries. Most importantly, I do want the city to actually get a bike project completed, especially one in the works for almost a decade; it shouldn't take tragedies to move things along.
Sincerely,
Kevin Ma