Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 12:08:43 -0600 Subject: [bpa] El Camino comments -- Workshop June 1! From: Ned Farquhar To: BPA open list Message-ID: >> See http://www2.bpaonline.org/mailing-lists.html for info on this list, << >> appropriate content, etiquette, (un)subscribing, ... << Folks: Some brief notes are appended to the end of this note about the El Camino redesign here in Palo Alto, funded by a CALTRANS grant to turn the corridor into one that is less oriented to cars and better supports pedestrians, bikes, businesses, and neighborhoods. As you might have seen in a note I sent out several weeks ago, there's a city-wide public workshop scheduled for June 1 from 9:30 to 1:00 in the Main Hall at Mitchell Park Community Center. The meeting will feature Reid Ewing, a national expert on redesigning older state highways that have become neighborhood corridors. (As the US has become more suburban over the past 50 years, this is a huge issue in a lot of places, and this CALTRANS study is meant to be precedential in California.) It's important for neighborhood people to attend so that the meeting reflects the community rather than any specific issue brought forward by any particular single-issue interest group. Some BPA Board members who met to discuss the ECR redesign came up with a short list of comments, still in draft. We hope the comments will help you get your arms around the issues on the table. Please feel free to comment back to Board members about them as well. Thanks, Ned Farquhar ECR redesign comments: In general we are very excited about the possibility of improving the ECR corridor both to enhance the corridor itself and to enhance adjacent neighborhoods, though there are some areas of possible concern. Impact on adjacent neighborhoods should be a central focus of this study and its implementation. 1) Traffic and transit. The City should show that reduction in lanes or speeds will work, perhaps by phasing in lane reductions and studying them in stages. At all costs, avoid pushing traffic into neighborhoods. Work with major employers and VTA to conduct commuter surveys so that some percentage of commuter traffic can be taken off of El Camino and put into efficient, convenient transit. (Also consider measures that might reduce commuter traffic by better balancing jobs and housing at SRP.) Reduce auto use as a goal of the study. Figure out ways to prefer transit so that more commuters will use it, especially the more frequent Caltrain service expected after the completion of the high-speed improvements. Design and implement long-term transit improvements in the corridor. 2) Pedestrians and bicycles. The redesign should improve conditions for walking and biking both across ECR and along it. Creation of new bike lanes should not come at the expense of wider sidewalks. We are concerned that signage for a bike route without dedicated lanes could be unsafe on a street as busy as El Camino. 3) Businesses and sidewalks. Businesses might have good ideas about how to improve the business environment on ECR. They should be able to continue their activity during construction. Any changes should be implemented in ways that minimize congestion and delay. They should be involved in planning the implementation so that they know what's going to happen and can prepare. We support the concept of widening sidewalks in areas where they are narrow. 4) Implementation. Plan the redesign so that the City can actually afford to implement it. Consider the possible effect of significant leaf litter and how it will be cleaned up to prevent accidents (especially during the rainy season).