Comments for “Palo Alto Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan (BPTP) Update (ARCHIVE)”
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Protected bike lanes are sorely needed for JLS students on Meadow. It's heavily trafficked by bikes and especially the crossing of Middlefield and Meadow needs a protected bike lane to separate bikes and cars.
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cars parked in the bike lane on the opposite side of the road from Palo Verde make it very dangerous since bikes need to veer into the lane of traffic. Can we make it a no-parking zone on the half-block across the street from Palo Verde on Louis?
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There should be some kind of infrastructure here to cross. Cowper is a great way to get to Mitchell Park and continue south without having to ride on Middlefield which has too many cars. I use Cowper and Nelson to get all the way to San Jose on bike and met someone riding their bike who does the same every week.
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Despite the signage indicating that this is a crosswalk, the cars never stop and wait for pedestrians. I use this intersection at least 2 to 4x a week and in the last few months a car has only stopped once. Something more is needed.
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This intersection is confusing as there is no stop for traffic heading west - into the dead end, but cross traffic doesn't realize this and assumes a 4 way stop. Student bikers heading north on Wilkie, will slide through the stop sign, cut the turn left onto James short, and then be facing head-on traffic that has the right away. I've personally cleaned up about 7 bloodied students who have fallen off their bikes and hit cars doing this.
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El Dorado @ Waverley is an unsafe intersection that needs a 4-way stop sign. There is one at El Dorado @ South Court one block away that makes less sense as there is a creek a block in one direction, and it dead-ends at Oregon in the other direction; there is no cross-traffic to stop for. Waverley is a thoroughfare with cars traveling quickly down alongside bikers. There have been accidents in this intersection, as well as hit bikers.
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The no parking zone should be extended further out from the intersection along California Ave. Currently when vehicles are parked on this intersection it makes it very difficult for cars turning onto California Ave from Williams St to see any oncoming cross-traffic (which tends to be at very high speeds given the lack of speed bumps in this part of California Ave).
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This intersection needs to be a 4 way stop. Cars zoom down Oberlin and since it is one of the few 2-way stops in College Terrace, I've seen many near-accidents as drivers assume the Oberlin cross-traffic will stop (even though they don't have a stop sign).
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The eastbound stop sign on Stanford Avenue is not clearly visible to motorists because it is far from the intersection due to a tree. I'd recommend trying to reposition the stop sign closer to the intersection as well as installing flashing lights for when pedestrians are crossing. Perhaps a speed bump might also be helpful.
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The timing of the pedestrian signal on the northern end of El Camino requires reprogramming. It starts too late and is too short, which often leads to confusion for pedestrians. It is also sometimes unresponsive for long stretches of time. I have seen so many people get misled by this signal and find themselves caught in the middle of El Camino just as the high speed cross-traffic resumes.
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Extremely dangerous intersection for bikes. One child was already killed here last year. Let's not have that happen again. Immediate improvements that need to be made include:
1. Painting a green bike strip that stretches all the way across the car lane so bikes can be in FRONT of cars that are turning right.
2. New traffic lights on southbound El Camino that are MUCH brighter and that are visible in the morning when the sun is behind them.
3. Resurfacing the road so that it is smoother for cyclists and they don't fall when crossing El Camino.
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Drivers Westbound on W Meadow often cross into the bike lane between Alma and Park Blvd, narrowly missing cyclists, especially when many Gunn students are riding to school in the morning.
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Drivers on Homer often drive right through the stop sign at High ST, impatient to get to the green light at Alma, endangering drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists on High st. There needs to be calming measures of some kind on Homer.
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Drivers often speed on Channing and do not respect cyclists' right to take a full lane. It should be reduced to a signal traffic lane and a protected bike lane by the South curb, parallel parking to the left of the bike lane.
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There should be a bike lane on Embarcadero so cyclists can safely cross 101 for access to facilities and businesses on the East side of 101. The existing bike and pedestrian bridge is too narrow, outdated, and out of the way.
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Infrastructure should be added to encourage bikes to slow down, to reduce collision risk and to keep the space comfortable and accessible for all. Asking bikes to fully dismount is unreasonable for such a valuable bike thoroughfare, and does not result in compliance. A middle ground is necessary.
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There should be a traffic signal visible from the West side of El Camino at Churchill so cyclists can see when the signal is green for traffic on Churchill.
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There is no way for cyclists to trigger a signal change when Westbound on Churchill, waiting to cross El Camino. The sensor in the traffic lane is not sensitive enough to detect bikes. Riders often give up waiting and cross without the light.
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There needs to be a clear substantial and all marked space for the large number of Palo students to collect here on southbound Churchill while they are waiting to cross Alma in the morning. They collect on the corner dangerously close to the fast moving traffic in the right northbound lane of Alma.
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The intent of raising this intersection with the textured surface to slow drivers down is a failure. It is not raised enough to slow people down. Drivers on Ross routinely drive through the stop signs after 5-10 MPH, before being able to see pedestrians or cyclists.
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The plantings on the Southeast and Southwest corners reduce the sightlines from Meadow so much that you can't see traffic traveling along Ross Rd. early enough to cross safely, especially on a bike.
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Curb extensions would greatly increase the amount of space available to bikes and pedestrians and reduce crossing lengths at this busy intersection.
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Please remove the two stop signs. It has created confusion that makes the intersection hazardous because people often don't seem to understand it. It should either be a 4-way stop or a traffic circle. It was safest to me as a pedestrian, driver, and a cyclist as a traffic circle because it slowed everyone down.
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Drivers often speed on this stretch of Channing. This is probably encouraged by the one-way traffic flow and wide lanes.
Drivers also sometimes go the wrong way on Channing.
Channing could benefit from being turned into a two-way street, or have traffic calming measures implemented.
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Drivers turning left onto Channing sometimes don't yield to walkers. The green light seems to encourage drivers to make the left without looking, and this issue is worsened by the large potential conflict zone since drivers can pick either lane to turn into.
Safety could be improved by turning the intersection into an all-way stop.
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