Alternative offered to city's new traffic plan Alternative offered to city's new traffic plan (January 28, 2004)@:by:By Ross Wilson

Recently, and without opportunity for public comment, the Menlo Park City Council majority read into the record a manifesto for traffic calming.

As it stands, this document is a prescription for do-nothing propounded by advocates of laissez-faire traffic policy. Undoubtedly, that is what its advocates intended. The manifesto makes no mention of preservation of our valuable residential and family neighborhoods.

As a basis for an alternative policy, more salutary to the residents of Menlo Park, I offer the following:

Preamble and objectives: Our streets are not global resources; rather, they are the stage on which are played out personal community interactions: they are the lifelines of our neighborhoods. Accordingly, neighborhood residents have a vested interest in minimizing externally-generated traffic, for sake of safety, quality of life, and property values.

The goal of traffic calming shall be to reduce cut-through traffic in our neighborhoods to an acceptable value, say 20 percent. Sufficient measures shall be instituted to channel present cut-through traffic onto recognized main thoroughfares. No street shall bear a disproportionate burden of cut-through traffic, nor shall measures be instituted that would penalize one street at the expense of others.

A further goal of traffic calming may be to mitigate unsafe situations. It is recognized that residents of a neighborhood, owing to their vested interest therein, are more likely than transients to obey traffic rules.

Encapsulation of commercial development. In recognition of the fact that large-scale commercial development is often the cause of cut-through traffic, city policy shall be to encourage (and mandate, if necessary) either project encapsulation, or roadway construction to channel traffic away from residential neighborhoods. Development within a neighborhood shall be scrutinized carefully to assure that it does not attract excess cut-through traffic onto residential streets.

Open toolbox. No traffic calming resources may be precluded, unless they adversely affect the safety of the neighborhood. Street closures, if adopted, shall be constructed in a manner that does not impede emergency services. Traffic engineers shall be empowered to engineer their projects in timely and cost-effective fashion. Calming measures shall be selected to minimize adverse effect on the neighborhood, while maximizing exclusion of cut-through traffic.

Measurable goals. Traffic calming projects, in common with well-managed engineering programs, shall have measurable goals and specific, timely, schedules. Projects shall not be considered complete until goals are met or exceeded.

Vigilance. As custodian of the community's well-being, the city shall exercise due diligence in preserving tranquility in our residential communities. This may be achieved by periodic traffic surveys at times deemed best by traffic professionals; when there is a substantiated community perception that cut-through trips have significantly increased; when there are substantiated reports of street hazards requiring mitigation; or as a result of triggers by nearby commercial development.

Community participation. Community participation shall be encouraged in all phases of traffic calming programs. The city shall hold progress meetings; solicit and carefully consider community input in pre-project phases; and request community participation in such activities as traffic surveys. All program events shall be well-publicized. In recognition that not all residents are computer literate, undue reliance shall not be placed on the Internet as a sole vehicle for neighborhood advisories.

Neighborhoods. Inter-neighborhood separation is to be avoided if possible. It is to be recognized, however, that city boundaries impose jurisdictional limitations on what can be achieved. Accordingly, in cases of egregious cut-through arising in neighboring municipalities, the City of Menlo Park shall first attempt negotiations to ascertain feasibility of a joint solution in conformity with the goals set forth above. If such a solution cannot be attained, the City of Menlo Park, in its custodial capacity for our neighborhoods, shall be empowered to act unilaterally.

Ross Wilson lives on Woodland Avenue in Menlo Park.

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