Posted by Guilty as Charged, a resident of the Menlo Park: other neighborhood, on Aug 4, 2009 at 5:50 pm

Woodside Elementary parents are not the only people parking along this stretch. The library's parking lot overflows any time the library has an event, and some parked cars are overflow from the restaurants and shops.

The businesses and institutions on this stretch need more parking than currently exists. Furthermore, neither school parents nor library patrons are going to be willing to walk far along an unsafe (not to mention muddy) verge with their young children.

It would be a mistake to frame this issue as solely a school problem. A real solution has to accommodate everyone who comes to this part of Woodside.

The best I can come up with is more parking -- public parking, shared by all who come to the area. But maybe someone is more creative than I am and can think of something else that would work.

Posted by Local Resident, a member of the Woodside School community, on Aug 4, 2009 at 10:10 pm

The reason for implementing the restrictions on parking is to make it safer for everyone - including those who want to walk, bike or drive on the Woodside Road, which is a state highway. If the bike lane is not blocked by cars, children on foot and bikes will be able to get to school more safely, and less parking will be needed. The parents who spoke would rather hustle their small children across a busy street than spend two extra minutes walking from the school parking lot which is 100 feet further from their children's classrooms. They ignore the existing "No Parking" signs, which were erected so drivers can see oncoming traffic,leave the streets full of litter which falls from their cars, and force the nearby neighbors to have to call the sheriff to move cars so they can exit their own driveways. Woodside does have a large public parking lot - which is usually empty, in the town center. Library patrons can park at the school lot which is usually only full during drop off and pick up times.

Posted by Catherine Latta, a resident of the Portola Valley: Westridge neighborhood, on Aug 5, 2009 at 12:50 pm

Please get your reporting on what was said at the meeting accurate. Mr. Claytor's views are misrepresented in this article.

Catherine Latta

Posted by Brian, a resident of the Woodside: Woodside Glens neighborhood, on Aug 5, 2009 at 1:16 pm

I see a lot of kids riding to school, and I'd think at least some parents would prefer having clear, safe bike lanes to parking. The problem is especially bad near the big fish, where bikes are traveling slowly and there isn't much room for the parked cars to get out of the way.

Posted by Cathy, a resident of the Woodside: other neighborhood, on Aug 6, 2009 at 10:11 pm

On numerous occasions I've walked from the library to the Bakery or Roberts along this route. Instead of a pleasurable experience, which any walk on a beautiful day in a "rural" area should be, it was always fraught with nervousness and fear because of this crazy parking situation. The town's found a reasonable solution that should at least be tried.

Posted by Brian, a resident of another community, on Aug 10, 2009 at 2:29 pm

So if drivers park illegally on a major state highway, endangering students, pedestrians and cyclists, Woodside is OK with that, but if a bicycle rolls through a right turn, endangering no one, it's time to issue tickets. Where is the outcry about respect for the law when it's drivers who are breaking it?