From: Robert Neff
To: Council, City
Subject: Re: Item 3 June2, 2025 -- BPTP
Date: Monday, June 2, 2025 1:13:34 PM
Attachments: BTPT Comments June 2 2025.pdf
See attached.
--
-- Robert
[email protected]
June 2, 2025 Re: Item 3, BTPT Update Honorable Council Members, I am glad to see the prioritized list of projects created for your discussion this evening. I think that
creating
and
endorsing
this
list
will
give
Palo
Alto
direction
and
flexibility
to
upgrade
our
bike
and
pedestrian
networks,
making
more
of
our
facilities
direct
and
comfortable
for
riders
of
All
Ages
and
Abilities.
I
am
glad
that
this
plan
sets
higher
goals
for
all
our
streets.
I endorse the priority ranking process, and the ranking shown in attachment D, with two notes: 1) The protected bike lane project for Middlefield Road did not make it onto this prioritized list.
The
bike
network
needs
a
route
either
along
MIddlefield
or
an
adjacent
parallel
street,
especially
north
of
Oregon
Expy,
and
I
would
like
to
see
an
alternative
to
Middlefield
identified
that
could
be
prioritized
onto
this
list.
2) I believe BLVD_CROSSING_04 and BLVD_CROSSING_05 have the wrong descriptions
on
the
list
in
Attachment
D.
A goal I see for this project is to improve everyone’s comfort with bicycling and walking for everyday
trips
in
our
community,
improving
our
quality
of
life,
and
helping
meet
our
sustainability
goals.
But
our
current
streets
are
crowded
with
lanes
and
parked
cars.
As
members
of
PABAC
observed,
when
discussing
improvements
around
Downtown,
it
seems
impossible
to
meet
our
goals
for
bicycling
safety,
comfort,
and
efficiency,
by
just
modifying
the
travel
lanes.
The
first
step
towards
a
transformation
of
our
streets
may
be
by
removing
half
or
all
of
the
parked
cars
on
a
few
streets,
and
make
those
still
work
for
folks
in
moving
vehicles,
and
exceptionally
well
for
all
folks
on
bikes.
I look forward to this transformation of our streets. Thank you for your service to the City of Palo Alto. Robert Neff Emerson near Alma. Current PABAC member, representing just myself.
From: Ann Balin
To: Council, City
Subject: Why the proposed plan for cyclists on arterials? Date: Monday, June 2, 2025 12:53:34 PM
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Dear Mayor Lauing and council members,
I am nonplussed as to why the 2012 plan is now being discarded to place bike lanes on arterials. The 2012 plan where much consideration and careful analysis shows logical routes where safety is paramount.The plan's specifically selected routes were not replete with traffic and congestion. Now either because of some consultant’s vision and or the pushing by lobbyists from the Bike Coalition the city wants to put bike lanes on improper roads.
Palo Alto has been the recipient of several bad plans due to consultants who do not know Palo Alto. For example the city has engaged past consultants from Virginia and Washington DC.
You the council must stop this nonsense.
We do not need bike lanes on Embarcadero Road or Middlefield Road. Drivers most often do not adhere to the speed limit. On Middlefield and Embarcadero there is constant friction right now where residents must be hyper vigilant leaving driveways. Add the scooters, EV bikes and cyclists and you will see more accidents and stress.
Please adhere to your goal of prioritizing safety and do not allow pressure from consultants and lobbyists to do otherwise.
Respectfully,
Ann Lafargue Balin
From: Randy Mont-Reynaud
To: Council, City
Subject: Cal Ave Bike Path - Solution Oriented suggestion, Palo Alto 2025 is not F. Scott Fitzgerald"s Paris! Date: Sunday, June 1, 2025 6:46:16 PM
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i
…and a gripe:
I hope to be able to speak at City Council Meeting tomorrow night if appropriate, to the Cal Ave bike paths issue. Does that work? If so when? If not, here are my solution oriented suggestions:
1. Please Consider green lanes on Cambridge, or the alleys behind shops, on Sherman/alleys. If you remove parking on Sherman (after all, we have an extensive garage!) there's plenty of safe space for bike paths. The alley behind Zareens through to Izzie's Bagels is also a good option, no?
Currently,Bikes and scooters zoom along Cal Ave through the opening onto Birch, the green lane in the middle of Cal Ave ends, and bikes continue to fly through the MIDDLE of the intersection of Birch and Cal Ave! Scary! Going kitty-corner to Gamelandia...
2. Space: As Mark Twain said,"Buy land. They're not making it any more." The current wide open middle space is great for strolling..why can't we just have some empty space? Empty safe space.
3. The elders and elderly: And did I mention the elderly? Bikes have come up behind me, thinking I have eyes in back of my head! On Cal Ave, bikes and scooters ignore bike lanes, and take to the sidewalks as well!
4. Commuting times compromise: Please consider bike path usage to be allowed during commute and school hours, similar to Parking signage, say, between 6:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. and from 3:00 pm to 6 p.m.?
5. Bottom line: No bike paths on Cal Ave; if we restrict cars, how do bikes This message needs your attention
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get a pass? I know Council approved the idea, but please consider: Bike parking racks in the alleys and in the Sherman garage? And, safety for all pedestrians, old and young (they do wander)
From: Rebecca Sanders
To: Council, City
Subject: June 2, Item #3
Date: Sunday, June 1, 2025 12:52:41 PM
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i
Dear Mayor Lauing and City Councilmembers,
I recently spoke with a friend who lives on Middlefield Road and learned that the Council may be considering whether to add Middlefield Road bike lanes back onto the project list as part of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan (BPTP). I am very concerned that this action would disregard the substantial public opposition expressed during the comment period.
Ross Road and Bryant Street, which run parallel to Middlefield, have already been designated as bike routes, with significant public investment—particularly on Ross. Introducing bike lanes on Middlefield would seem to undermine those prior efforts and investments intended to encourage cyclists to use Ross and Bryant.
In addition, removing parking along Middlefield would pose significant challenges for North Palo Alto residents, where many homes directly front the street. The combination of bike lanes and the loss of parking would directly affect residents' ability to safely access and navigate their neighborhood.
This is also a sensitive issue for those of us in Ventura. We were promised that Park Boulevard would become a designated Bike Boulevard with corresponding improvements, yet those upgrades have yet to materialize. Now, with El Camino Real improvements underway, we fear we may never see those long-promised enhancements.
I respectfully urge you not to reintroduce the Middlefield Road bike lanes at this time. Doing so would send the wrong message—that the voices of residents are not being heard.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Becky Sanders
Ventura Neighborhood
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From: Jo Ann Mandinach
To: [email protected]; Council, City; Stone, Greer; Reckdahl, Keith; Veenker, Vicki; Lythcott- Haims, Julie; [email protected]; Burt, Patrick; Lauing, Ed Subject: Thanks for tabling the Middlefield Rd bike plan, now permanently remove it. Item 3 Date: Friday, May 30, 2025 11:43:11 AM
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Dear Mayor Lauing, Vice Mayor Veenker and Members of City Council, I am writing to ask you to permanently remove from consideration any plan to add bike lanes to Middlefield Road, or to otherwise encourage cyclists to use this road.
This is the third -- 3d -- time that residents got NO OFFICIAL OUTREACH / warnings about this drastic plan that would have directly affected us, our neighbors on cross-streets, our visitors, us and all service our people; cleaners, gardeners, painters, pool people etc as well as emergency vehicles along with all the school parents doing pick-up/drop-off at all the Middlefield Road schools, visitors to Lucie Stern, visitors to the Junior Museum and Zoo which is promoted as a regional tourist attraction..
(Note this plan to slow traffic all over Palo ALSO slows emergency vehicles all over Palo Alto!!)
One frustrated neighbor called this latest recycling of this failed plan deja vu all over again. Others decry the fact that Palo Alto has become a place i where bad ideas are tabled but never die. I wonder why Palo Alto continues to waste money on plans KNOWN to be so dangerous that were rejected twice before when our streets were safer.
Fortunately, alert residents and individual city staffers warned us about these plans each of those 3 times they city tried to push this through while ignoring that the street is even more dangerous than the last 2 times they tried this -- and EACH time residents rallied in droves to kill, er table,
Not that this time, the Middlefield plan got the MOST pushback comments of all the 100 projects the city and their outside consultants pitched in their incredibly dense and confusing plan which totally ignores the recent deaths of bicycles on busy roads like Middlefield and Embarcadero (at Newell) while pushing biking on these busy roads! WHY??
And why do we have to waste time and energy fighting this increasingly dangerous recycled nonsense??
As many others have written to you, it is dangerous for cyclists on Middlefield Road. Moreover, cyclists pose a danger to cars trying to avoid them on this narrow, busy street, and to residents trying to back out of their driveways and to parked cars and to through traffic boxed in by the bollards sometimes backed up INTO major intersections like Oregon and Embarcadero
So please kill this bad plan for once and all.
And please stop trying to make life miserable for the vast majority of Palo Alto's 66,000 residents and the roughly 264,000 commuters who drive -- low figures because they don't reflect all the new jobs and new housing units -- to appease the biking zealots and staffers more motivated by getting grant money than by real safety factors, more reliant on outside consultants with no local knowledge. (If you want local knowledge, I'll be glad to describe the 3+ collisions directly in front of my home at Lowell and Middlefield and the perils of the dangerous zero- visibility bollards already at every Middlefield intersection!) Most sincerely,
Jo Ann Mandinach
See the news citations below on how drivers are pushing back on the dangers of similar plans that benefit few while inconveniences tens of thousands. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/traffic-bridge-bicycle-lane-marin- 20326160.php
Drivers blame this Bay Area bridge’s
gridlock on a bike lane.
... Critics, however, accuse officials of catering to a small group of hardcore riders at the expense of people who struggle to get to work each day. According to the MTC,
140 cyclists cross the Richmond-San Rafael span on an average weekday, a number that rises to 360 on Saturdays and Sundays. By contrast, the bridge’s westbound upper deck carries about 35,000 drivers...
San Francisco Leader Faces Recall
After Drivers Lost Their Great
Highway
Joel Engardio, an elected city supervisor, angered thousands of voters by helping to convert a major thoroughfare into a coastal park.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/us/san-francisco-recall-great-highway- park.html
From: Patricia L Devaney
To: Council, City; [email protected]
Subject: request for public meeting to discuss plans to add bike lanes and remove some parking from Middlefield Road Date: Thursday, May 29, 2025 1:54:14 PM
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Dear Palo Alto City Transportation leaders and City Council members, I was surprised and disappointed to learn that Palo Alto Transportation planners were taking a major transportation proposal to the City Council for approval without first informing and meeting with those Palo Alto residents most likely to be affected by the proposed actions. That is, I understand that a proposal to add bike lanes and remove some parking spaces from Middlefield Road is going to the City Council for approval without first informing and discussing the proposed actions with the Palo Alto residents, especially those who will be most affected. That process lacks the transparency that we have come to expect from our City leaders. A single article in the Palo Alto Weekly is not a sufficient way of informing the public.
Therefore, I ask that a public meeting be widely announced and held before City Council is asked to vote on the proposal.
My concerns are primarily those related to safety. The number of cars and trucks driving on Middlefield has increased a lot in recent years, as has the speed with which drivers drive. There have been an increasing number of auto accidents with cars crossing Middlefield at such intersections as Lincoln. How can adding more bikes to Middlefield not make the street even more dangerous? Why are we not looking for more bike lanes on less traveled roads such as Webster or Waverly?
Safety is also an issue for cars trying to get in and out of their driveways on Middlefield. It’s already hard enough to get through auto traffic to get out of/into my driveway safely. Adding more bikes to the road just increases that danger. Also, where will we put our recycling bins for weekly pickup? Furthermore, the proposed actions will put pedestrians in more danger. This includes people 65 or older (true for 20% of Palo Alto residents) going to TheaterWorks and children going with their parents or nannies to the park, Children’s Museum, pool, theater, and tennis courts, etc. How about their safety among people flying by in their bikes?? I really think that residents need to be better informed of these plans and have a chance to provide input before the proposed actions are approved. Thanks for considering this request.
Sincerely, Patricia Devaney
From: Jeanne Fleming
To: Council, City
Cc: Clerk, City
Subject: Middlefield Road bike lanes
Date: Wednesday, May 28, 2025 7:14:55 AM
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Dear Mayor Lauing, Vice Mayor Veenker and Members of City Council, I am writing to ask you to permanently remove from consideration any plan to add bike lanes to Middlefield Road, or to otherwise encourage cyclists to use this road.
As many others have written to you, it is dangerous for cyclists on Middlefield Road. Moreover, cyclists pose a danger to cars trying to avoid them on this narrow, busy street, and to residents trying to back out of their driveways.
Please scotch this bad plan.
Sincerely,
Jeanne Fleming
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