TRAFFIC PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH STANFORD'S PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT THAT
AFFECT MENLO PARK AND ENVIRONS:NEED FOR AREA WIDE PLAN

Tomorrow’s agenda lists a presentation by Stanford on their plans for
expansion of the Shopping Center and the Hospital. I would urge you to
consider the traffic impact of the proposed development on areas not
specifically within your city boundaries (in contrast to what the prior
council did.) Alpine Road (both Menlo Park and County jurisdictions) is
inundated with Stanford traffic and this promises to become worse with
the planned hotel/office development on Sand Hill Road. Additionally,
Stanford uses Alpine as a preferred truck route because there is a
higher speed limit and no stop signs. Alpine is a 2-lane, poorly
maintained road with several blind curves, many residences, a bus stop
and several school bus stops. It is extremely dangerous for local
residents, pedestrians and bicyclists. Several speeding cars have gone
over the embankment near Bishop Lane. Another danger spot is the
gateway to the old Buck Estate which is used by many to make illegal
U-turns or left turns out of the driveway. Additionally, the merge lane
(Portola Valley bound direction) at the Santa Cruz intersection is
hazardous because the merge lane is too short.. Vehicles vie for
position, causing some to veer over the yellow line into oncoming
traffic, or plough into the bicycle lane used by many cyclists. One
such serious accident occurred September 28 2006 and there have been
many other less traumatic accidents. Yet another serious hazard exists
at Piers Lane where many people park legally and illegally along both
sides of the road to hike the Dish. Many of these motorists make
illegal U-turns across oncoming traffic from I-280 or merge from the
pedestrian pathway.

When the intersection was reconstructed and Alpine was closed off from
Menlo Park. Stanford promised local residents that there would be no
construction truck traffic on Alpine. That turned out to be an absolute
lie. Not only was there truck traffic from the intersection
construction; there were also large convoys of DOUBLE tractor trailers
(sometimes as many as 10) racing along Alpine to and from the Red Barn
reconstruction. These trucks speeded, swayed into the bike lanes and
spewed vast quantities of dust and rubble all along the road. Although
truck traffic is not permitted (according to the signs) along Junipero
Serra Blvd. Stanford is apparently allowed under the current GUP to use
Alpine and Junipero Serra Blvd. as a truck route. This is not safe
because the trucks cannot stop at the speed they travel within
sufficient distance to accommodate all the blind curves, school buses,
and residents exiting driveways that exist.

The Stanford Hospital is a wonderful asset to the community and
obviously it has to be quake resistant. However, something has to be
done about managing employee/patient trips per day. At rush hours Sand
Hill is already choked with traffic (as Steve Schmidt predicted it would
be) and sometimes there is gridlock at the Santa Cruz intersection.
Some people access the hospital via Page Mill/ I-280 /West Campus
Drive. However, the Page Mill off ramp/intersection is a disaster.
There needs to be some kind of tunnel to allow vehicles to come from
I-280/Page Mill to and from Junipero Serra and thence to campus. There
is a similar problem in the evening because traffic is backed up all
along Junipero Serra trying to get onto Page Mill.

The Stanford Shopping Center is another “kettle of fish.” It is an
over priced, over built, overcrowded place that a lot of people keep
clear of. We do not need more stores or more offices in the Menlo Park
area. I believe that Menlo Park should object to this aspect of the
proposal on the basis of traffic impact.

I would urge the Council members to get together with San Mateo, Palo
Alto and Santa Clara to think out some RATIONAL area traffic plan rather
than have each jurisdiction dump the problem into the lap of the other
jurisdictions (as both Palo Alto and Menlo Park did in the recent past)
Sand Hill needs to be open at Alma so that traffic doesn’t have to go
down El Camino and make a U-turn to get into Palo Alto. Stanford is
adept at playing one jurisdiction against the other, and making slick
presentations that promise the world but turn out to have serious
drawbacks. Stanford is already at its maximum commuter trip allocation
under the GUP and the surrounding area cannot take any more cars.
Please address the problems. Janet Davis, Alpine Road
Received on Tue Feb 13 19:45:05 2007