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Menlo Park is one of the worst cities of its size when it comes collisions that kill or injure bicyclists, according to the state. City officials are hoping the Vision Zero Action Plan will eliminate crash-related fatalities.
The Vision Zero Action plan outlines policy, analysis and street safety regulations that aim to eliminate collision-related fatalities and reduce non-fatal collisions by 50% by 2030. City staffers reported at the Oct. 24 City Council meeting that they identified the 20% of Menlo Park streets where 90% of collisions with serious injuries and fatalities have occurred. The list includes El Camino Real, Bayfront Expressway, Willow Road, Ravenswood Avenue and Middle Avenue.
The most recent crash data from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) is from 2020, when the city ranked sixth worst out of 91 similar-sized California cities in bicycling collisions where the cyclist was injured or killed, and the third worst for cyclists under age 15. The OTS reported that Menlo Park had a total of 88 crashes resulting in injury or death in 2020, the 13th highest among comparable cities.
The Menlo Park Complete Streets Commission weighed in on the Vision Zero plan on Aug. 24, recommending implementation steps to the City Council. Commissioner Ross Silverstein called out the intersection of Middlefield Road and Woodland Avenue by Willow Market.
“It is the worst intersection that I’ve seen in the entire city, where you have two lanes one way, and you have left turns, and you have a blind intersection, and you have people trying to cross, but there’s no crosswalk,” Silverstein said. “It’s bad for cars, it’s impossible for bikers, and if it can’t be improved, it should be abolished.”
The commission recommended utilizing roundabouts to make intersections safer and conducting outreach to middle and high schoolers. According to the staff report, only 5% of Menlo Park intersections have traffic signals but 40% of the city’s serious injuries and fatalities happen at those locations.
“This is obviously something that is really important,” Assistant Public Works Director Hugh Louch said at the meeting. “We talk a lot about safety as the most important thing that we do, and this is a way to kind of make that real.”
One planned change from the Vision Zero Action Plan is for city staff to set speed limits that take into account the human body’s ability to tolerate a crash force rather than basing it on historic driver behavior.
The Vision Zero Action Plan will come to the Menlo Park City Council for a study session on Nov. 7.
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