From: Brian Roth
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2025 10:12 AM
To: Distrib- City Clerk <[email protected]> Subject: Public Comment - 7/21/2025 CC Meeting - Chris Brignetti I am a frequent cyclist within San Rafael and I would like to submit this public comment requesting the City Council take action immediately to make our streets safer for cyclists, specifically at Freitas Parkway and Lea Drive.
Please redesign this road and others like it in San Rafael before more lives are lost.
Safer roads encourage more walking and biking, reducing car traffic and contributing to the city's climate goals.
Regards,
Brian Roth
Marin Resident
July 21, 2025
Mayor Kate Colin and City Council members
City of San Rafael
1400 Fifth Ave
San Rafael, CA via email: [email protected] Re: City Council meeting 7/21/25, “Open Time for Public Expression” Subject: “2nd/4th Street Intersection Improvement Project” and comparison of “Second and West Street” intersection to bicycle collisions at “Freitas Parkway and Lea Drive” intersection Tonight you are hearing from several residents asking why the City has not improved safety at the intersection of Freitas Parkway and Lea Drive after 6 collisions, the most recent involving the death of a bicyclist, after colliding with a left turning vehicle.
The intersection of Freitas Parkway and Lea Drive is an “unsignalized” intersection.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis and reporting system (FARS), in 2022, total traffic fatalities involving an “unsignalized” intersection increased 86% over fatalities at a signalized one. Bicyclist fatalities increased 45%.
Knowing the increased risk of collisions at “unsignalized” intersections, the City is proposing the closure of a “signalized” left turn at Second and Marquard and diverting ~100 vehicles/day to the “unsignalized” intersection of Second and West Streets as part of the proposed 2nd/4th Street intersection project.
According to a Kimley-Horn report, closing the left-turn lane at Second and Marquard will reduce all delays in peak travel time, by about 5-8 seconds, hardly an improvement. The report doesn’t comment on the increased risk of collision at Second and West Street by diverting ~100 left-turning vehicles daily to this “unsignalized” intersection.
At a recent BPAC meeting where members questioned the safety of diverting traffic to an “unsignalized” intersection, the director of Public Works, April Miller, stated that “everything is a trade off.” She claims that conflict points at the “signalized” intersection are greater, even though there is no history of collisions involving left-turning vehicles here and FARS statistics show bicycle fatalities increase by 45% at “unsignalized” intersections. The recent fatality at Freitas and Lea bears this out.
Comments from local residents about the “unsignalized” left turn from Second to West Streets include:
• I was turning from Second Street onto West Street when a bicyclist came FLYING by (going eastbound); I had to slam on my brakes or I would have hit him. • I have been caught “off-guard” by bicyclists traveling westbound in the bike lane on Second Street as I wait for a break in traffic to turn left onto West Street.
Vehicles turning left from Second to West Street have to weave in between heavy on-coming traffic (30,000 vehicles/day), cross a 2-way bike lane, and pedestrian crosswalk. This is no easy feat, without traffic controls.
Everything is a trade-off. By approving the closure of a safer “signalized” intersection at Second and Marquard and diverting ~100 vehicles to the “unsignalized” intersection at Second and West Streets, you will be choosing the reduced delay in travel time on Second Street of 5-8 seconds over the increased risk of bicycle collisions at Second and West Streets. Is a life worth less than a 5-8 second delay in traffic? Will you wait until a bicyclist is killed at this intersection, like Freitas and Lea, before taking these risks seriously? Do you want it on your conscience that you knew of the risks yet chose to do nothing to prevent it?
Sincerely,
Victoria DeWitt
cc: Mark Kyle, BPAC Chair
Kevin Aguigui, Kimley-Horn
Robert Stevens, CSW ST2
Grey Melgard, Project contact
April Miller, Director Public Works
From: Linda
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2025 8:54 AM
To: Distrib- City Clerk <[email protected]> Subject: 2nd and West Streets
I have lived at my current home at the top of West St. for many years, always using West St. or East St. to exit and access my home. Turning right onto Second from West St. is perilous if a large vehicle or truck heading east attempts to make a right turn onto West St. because it is narrow with limited visibility.There have been many near misses to my car at this intersection.
Heading home, I used to wait, sometimes over five minutes, to make that left turn off Second St. onto West, but now I aways use the light at East St., turn onto Jessup St., and then onto West to go to the top of the hill. If there is a delivery truck on Jessup St., there is not enough room to pass it, and if there are two cars/trucks on Jessup St., there is much maneuvering and backing up until they can get past each other. In addition, East St. is problematic because it is so narrow and also, cars/trucks careen around the corner heading east from Second St. onto East St.The corner of East St. and Jessup St. is a constant back-up exercise for cars trying to get by.
These streets are small and difficult to drive on now but the addition of 100 cars from Second St. due to the closure of the left turn lane on West End would make this area a gridlock nightmare. Channeling that amount of traffic to this small neighborhood will be a disaster.
Linda Lieberman
From: Steve Wilbur
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2025 9:00 AM
To: Distrib- City Clerk <[email protected]> Subject: Public Comment - 7/21/2025 CC Meeting - Chris Brignetti Dear City Council,
My name is Steve Wilbur and I am a lifelong resident of San Rafael and was friends with Chris Brignetti who was killed riding his bike due to an unsafe intersection. I am asking you to prevent any more tragedies at the intersection of Freitas Parkway and Lea Drive. There have been six serious bike crashes at this same intersection with no changes yet to make it safer. The City chose not to implement its own 2018 Bicycle Master Plan recommendations, which would have narrowed the travel lanes. Freitas Parkway's wide, high-speed design is inherently unsafe. It's time to redesign this road and others like in San Rafael before more lives are lost. Safer roads encourage more walking and biking, reducing car traffic and contributing to the city's climate goals.
Here is part of my eulogy of Chris so that you get to know a little bit about my friend who died needlessly on his bike due to this unsafe intersection. I hope that you will implement changes to make this intersection safer so you do not have to read any more eulogies in the future.
I have had the great fortune of being friends with Chris Brignetti for over 35 years. We have shared many adventures on and off the bike. To know Chris was to like him and be a friend. He was such a positive force of joy and fun to be around. Almost every goodbye with Chris ended with "Let's ride together soon." Besides his best roles of husband, father, brother, son, friend, and dandy pirate, the optimal description that captures the pure joy of Chris was his job title at KKS: ambassador of goodwill. Chris lived a life we should all aspire to: grounded in family and friends, dedicated to his community, committed to his fitness, and always, always- positive. His love of cycling was a joy to experience and share. When I first met Chris, he was riding with the Twin Peaks cycling club that he helped form. Chris was the gold standard as a cyclist. Although he was predominantly always better and faster, rides with Chris were more about the companionship and the beauty of the outdoors rather than fast times.
Chris was a participant on the first Team and Training triathlon team and then the Iron Team to help raise funds for the leukemia and lymphoma society. Chris was a gifted athlete but an even more gifted coach. He was able to share his knowledge and stoke as a triathlon coach for Team in Training for many years. I will always picture Chris and his Steve Rex bike (steel is real) next to his orange volkswagen laughing with us assistant coaches after every practice. Known by his email handle of TriCoachChris, he helped support and develop hundreds of triathletes and share his passion for cycling. Chris also shared his passion by working in bike shops, as a spin instructor and as a coach, especially with the Terra Linda High School mountain bike team as a proud parent.
Chris understood the power that cycling has to get us through rough times if we just keep turning the pedals. He would find time to bike whenever he could even if that meant riding at night after dinner in the dark. Fond memories of shared adventures with Chris including racing up the first mountain pass of the Death Ride only to pay for that hubris on the next four passes, doing the Marin Century together so I could flirt with my future wife, riding our cross bikes around Tamarancho, yelling out to Chris riding his bike to work while on my own bike commute and checking out the nature pictures on Strava he took while on his rides.
A few years ago, I texted Chris if he wanted to uber or ride bikes to get to Balta's house for our annual game of Risk. He responded : "Let's Ride. It's a good spin around paradise.": It's a good spin around paradise encapsulates the essence of Chris. I would like to think that Chris has ridden up ahead with that smooth cadence of his and that we will all ride again. Gone way too soon but I hope Chris rides in peace with tailwinds at his back.
Respectfully,
Steve Wilbur