|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The city of Menlo Park and San Mateo County are working together to make changes to the area around Ringwood and Coleman avenues. Residents say the area is plagued by speeding drivers, illegal parking and other safety issues affecting children who use these streets to get to school. At its Tuesday, Oct. 22, meeting, the Menlo Park City Council discussed proposals for a pilot program to address these issues.
There are a number of schools in the vicinity of the two streets: Menlo-Atherton High School, Laurel Elementary School and the Peninsula School as well as KIPP Valiant Community Prep and the Silicon Valley International School closer to Willow Road. Coleman Avenue is shared by the county and the city, and Ringwood is primarily owned by the county.
“On Coleman, I hear about cars speeding past young children while honking, and hyper-aggressive cars passing other cars who are going slow because there are children in front of them,” said Meredith Bergen Bailey, one of the Safe Routes to School co-chairs for Laurel Elementary School at the Oct. 22 meeting.
After several years of outreach, the county’s transportation consultants came up with a long-term plan to address the issues on the two streets.
However, despite initial support for the plans, residents on the streets signed petitions expressing dissatisfaction with the design due to fears that speeding would not be adequately addressed, and concern that the plans would involve the removal of the heritage oak trees that line Coleman Avenue.
The county has now returned with proposals for several pilot concepts for the streets so that officials they can test out changes to the streets with cheaper materials before making the more expensive long-term changes.
Any pilot implemented is expected to come before the start of the next school year, and to last for approximately six months. There are no pilot plans proposed for Ringwood Avenue.
One option for a short-term improvement for Coleman Avenue is to prohibit turns during peak hours via signage. Courtesy county of San Mateo. 
One option for a short-term improvement for Coleman Avenue is to close the street to through traffic. Courtesy county of San Mateo. 
One option for a short-term improvement for Coleman Avenue is to implement one-way traffic on the county’s portion of the street. Courtesy county of San Mateo. 
One option for a short-term improvement for Coleman Avenue is to implement temporary traffic calming measures such as rubber speed bumps. Courtesy county of San Mateo.
Ideas for the short-term trial include turn restrictions onto Coleman from Willow Road and Ringwood Avenue during peak hours; a full road closure at the county-city border on Coleman, with “not a through street” signs on either end of the road to eliminate cut through traffic and the installation of temporary traffic calming measures such as rubber speed bumps.
However, the pilot plan that has received the most vocal support from public commenters and residents is the conversion of the county portion Coleman to a one-way street at the county-city border. The one way traffic would flow toward Ringwood, and the other side of the street would function as a dedicated bike and pedestrian lane. If this plan is implemented, there would be a barricade closure at the city-county border, and the city portion of the street would remain open to two-way traffic.
The one-way plan was endorsed by school district representatives in a letter sent in September as well as at the City Council meeting, and by a community petition that was presented to the county. Nearly 20 community members commented in support of the one-way alternative at the Oct. 22 meeting.
“We are responsible for the safety of our students, and we believe the smoothest and quickest way forward to increase the safety of Coleman Avenue, at this time, is to go with the one-way pilot,” said the letter from school district representatives, which was signed by Kristen Gracia and Crystal Leach, superintendents of the Menlo Park City School District and Sequoia Union High School District, respectively. The letter was also signed by the principals of several local schools.
Many speakers urged the council to, above all, act quickly on whatever pilot plan they choose to endorse.
“Elected officials and the community have tried and failed for more than two decades to improve safety on this 0.7 mile corridor that our students use daily,” wrote school officials in the letter. “Some of the most invested elected leaders with the most institutional knowledge of Coleman will be leaving their seats in December (County Supervisor Warren Slocum, Menlo Park Council member Jen Wolosin), and in the interests of not further delaying this project, we urge you to vote for and fund a one-way pilot before new electeds come on board.”
Ultimately, the council settled on writing a letter to the county, urging them to move forward quickly with the one-way pilot option.
“The one-way pilot is a relatively low-cost opportunity to make space on Coleman for all modes of travel,” the council wrote in the letter unanimously endorsing the one-way pilot. “The one-way pilot has emerged as the compromise option that most are willing to try and … the use of temporary materials will enable it to be easily removed if necessary.”
The council also emphasized that the county should put this issue on the Board of Supervisors agenda quickly, and to not require resolutions from the MPCSD board and SUHSD board to agendize the matter. Council member Wolosin said that at an earlier Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Ray Mueller indicated the item would not be agendized without resolutions from the school districts.
“My understanding is that County Public Works is currently considering and pursuing appropriate street level safety enhancements to Coleman Ave. Such safety improvements need not be added to the Board of Supervisor’s agenda,” said Mueller in an email to the City Council on the morning of Oct. 23. “Council member (Jen) Wolosin represented there was new found community support for this one way design, despite survey results during project community outreach indicating otherwise. In our meeting, a request was made for resolutions from the City of Menlo Park, MPCSD, and (SHUSD) to demonstrate the new support for the design change.”
The council included a copy of the September letter signed by school district representatives in their letter to the county as well.
Council member Maria Doerr also emphasized that the city should follow up with the county to try to get some quick-build or short-term alternatives installed on Ringwood to improve safety for school children soon.
“Ringwood needs attention, but I’m worried that if we try to bundle it with this, it’ll sink the whole thing,” she said.
The council also opted to move forward with exploring the installation of an all-way stop sign at the intersection of Santa Monica and Coleman avenues, as well as the installation of temporary traffic calming devices on the city-owned portion of Coleman.
Long-term alternatives
A graphic shows the layout of the proposed long-term design for Ringwood Avenue. Courtesy city of Menlo Park. 
A graphic shows the layout of the proposed long-term design for the county’s portion of Coleman Avenue. Courtesy city of Menlo Park. 
A graphic shows the layout of the proposed long-term design for Menlo Park’s portion of Coleman Avenue. Courtesy city of Menlo Park.
With the data collected from the pilot, the long-term traffic calming plans may change. However, as plans currently stand, there are several different traffic calming measures that will be implemented on the two streets over the next few years.
For Ringwood, long-term plans involve adding buffered bike lanes to the street, and widening the pedestrian pathways on the street. Ringwood will also receive traffic calming improvements such as crosswalk visibility enhancements and the installation of speed bumps or tables.
The long-term improvements to the county portion of Coleman would look similar to the improvements on Ringwood, with bike lanes, pathways, and speed bumps. The county also plans to improve the small traffic circles that currently exist on the street. Since Coleman is a narrower street than Ringwood, there would only be a pedestrian pathway on one side of the street.
On the city’s portion of Coleman, plans show a shared-use pathway for bikers and pedestrians, as well as the addition of speed bumps and a stop sign at the intersection of Coleman and Santa Monica avenues. Since the street is narrower here, parking would be removed on one side of the street to allow room for the shared-use pathway.
These long-term plans would cost significantly more than the proposed pilots. Spencer said that there are “multi-million dollar cost estimates” for the installation of these longer-term solutions, as opposed to the estimated $60,000-$200,000 that the county estimates for installing the various pilots.
Redwood City attorney sues ‘First Amendment auditors’ after Menlo Park disputeApril 2, 2026 11:31 am
While minor in comparison, there is also a safety issue in that the portion of sidewalk west of that stop sign on Ringwood is completely blocked by garden debris, dead branches, and 2-3 seasons of fallen leaves piled up against the fence of the property on Toyon Rd.
Please, take action to support safe streets. Email the San Mateo Board of Supervisors at boardfeedback@smcgov.org and CC the Clerk of the Board @ sgolestan@smcgov.org. Additionally, email Menlo Park City Council at city.council@menlopark.gov. In both emails urge the Supervisors and City Council to accept the final Ringwood Coleman study report, support of the one way pilot on Coleman, removal parking on the Coleman, install all way stop at San Monica and implement the long term plan. Our City Council and Supervisors need to understand the importance of Coleman to our school community and larger community as a route that needs to be safe for kids, folks with strollers, walkers, etc.