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The first phase of Atherton’s plans for making the town a friendlier and safer place for bicyclists and pedestrians will be presented to the public at a meeting on Tuesday night, Aug. 11. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. in the Jennings Pavilion in Holbrook-Palmer Park, 150 Watkins Ave.
The first project to put into place some of the improvements recommended in the Bike Pedestrian Master Plan, adopted by the town in late 2014, includes putting bike route signs and pavement markings (called sharrows) showing that cars and bikes should share the lane, on these Atherton streets:
● Elena Avenue, between Valparaiso Avenue and Atherton Avenue.
● Faxon Road, between Barry Avenue and Elena Avenue.
● Barry Lane, between Faxon Road and Atherton Avenue.
● Selby Lane, between Atherton Avenue and West Selby Lane.
● Dinkelspiel Station Lane, between Watkins Avenue and Fair Oaks Avenue.
● Austin Avenue, between Atherton Avenue and West Selby Lane.
● Atherton Avenue, between Alameda De Las Pulgas and El Camino Real.
● Fair Oaks Avenue, between El Camino Real and Middlefield Road.
● Alejandra Avenue, between El Camino Real and Emilie Avenue.
● Emilie Avenue, between Alejandra Avenue and Park Lane.
● Park Lane, between Emilie Avenue and Camino al Lago.
● Camino al Lago, between Park Lane and Alameda de Las Pulgas.
● Watkins Avenue, between El Camino Real and Middlefield Road.
I’m so happy to hear this, as I bicycle through Atherton the work daily, to avoid El Camino and other hazardous areas.
Some of the roads that will be made “bicycle and pedestrian friendly” are very much too narrow to allow any cars to pass any such bicyclists and/or pedestrians without going into the other lane. (Sorry, I cannot attend the meeting, but an very interested in learning the details of how this is expected to work.)
This is a much needed safety measure. I look forward to having it implemented and applaud the work done on it.
Great, but why are there no proposed improvements along Middlefield? Seems like a missed opportunity not to turn the corner from Watkins so kids can get to Encinal safely. Vehicular traffic at drop off and pick up is an issue here, so it seems like a no-brainer to encourage alternative transit. The ideal would be to take this further and provide a safe north-south link along Middlefield, connecting Town Center to M-A HS.
While we are talking about connectivity and the lack of N-S links, why do Menlo Park’s Felton Gables residents have key access to Atherton’s Holbrook Palmer Park but peds and bicyclists coming from the Atherton side cannot cut through?
This is just phase one of implementing the town’s Bike Pedestrian Master Plan. The plan plan suggests improvements along Middlefield and through Holbrook-Palmer Park, as well as many others. See the entire plan on the town’s website: http://ca-atherton.civicplus.com/DocumentCenter/View/1381 .
Kudos to the Town of Atherton for moving forward on the Plan’s recommendations!
# why do Menlo Park’s Felton Gables residents
# have key access to Atherton’s Holbrook Palmer
# Park but peds and bicyclists coming from the
# Atherton side cannot cut through?
I have a similar question. A few thoughts:
* That access gate is locked, and only (a few?) Felton Gables residents have access. I wouldn’t have an issue with that, except that as part of the ballpark work they paved that access between the “pseudo-private” gate and the ballpark, IN THE PARK.
So basically, they want access to be private, but they modified a public space (the paved path in the park) for their private convenience. Basically they want their cake (private access for Felton Gable residence) and eat it too (paved pathway added to a public park, a paved pathway only effectively used by them).
This is an inappropriate change to the park. The only equitable resolution is one of the following:
1) remove the inappropriately added paved parkway between the ballpark and the gate. Private residents should not be allowed to create paved paths for their private use in a public space.
2) remove the gate (or the lock on the gate), to allow the public to use a path that exists on a public space (holbrook-palmer park).
* I reviewed the Park and Recreation Committee minutes for the last year and could not find any items mentioning the approval of this private path being allowed in this public space.
* I suspect the funds used to pay for that path came from the $50k that was suppose to be paid to Atherton as part of a plan for improvements to HP Park, improvements that were to be at the discression of the Park&Recs committee. The last thing I heard, that was never paid, and Little League decided to keep the money and spend it as they saw fit. I welcome correction if that is no longer the case.