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The newly striped bike lane on Ravenswood Avenue could become a permanent fixture between Alma Street and Noel Drive after a unanimous vote by the Menlo Park Complete Streets Commission at an April 17 meeting.
The city rolled out a pilot program to install a bike lane on Ravenswood Avenue in March, aiming to create safer routes for bicyclists. According to the city staff report, there had been 21 collisions on Ravenswood between Laurel and Alma streets since 2019, two of which were between a motor vehicle and a bicycle, both resulting in minor injuries.
Since the pilot program was implemented last month, there have been no collisions reported.
“I’m excited to build out our safe streets infrastructure to make biking and walking safer in Menlo Park,” Mayor Jen Wolosin said.
According to the staff report, a majority of respondents to a city survey who already cycle indicated that they were more likely to bike on Ravenswood Avenue today and approximately 33% of drivers said that pedestrians are more visible to drivers, while 61% said there was no change. A total of 76% of respondents said that bicycle safety had improved.
On the other hand, 67% of driving respondents said that there was a worse delay.
A respondent to the survey who said they felt much safer biking on Ravenswood Avenue during the pilot program commented that they haven’t used the bike lane yet, but plan to soon, even though they used to avoid biking the road.
“With the extended bike lane, I would feel much safer and comfortable using it due to less proximity to the cars, that I do not trust when that close on a busy stretch of street,” the respondent wrote.
Another person commented that traffic congestion was much worse since the bike lane was put into action. “Between the light at Laurel and the train tracks, the congestion during peak hours is unbearable; my commute time home is nearly doubled when I take this route.”
The Complete Streets Commission voted unanimously to make the program permanent, and is set to go to the Menlo Park City Council for consideration.
