Honorable mayor and members of the Menlo Park City Council:

Let me begin by saying I am writing as a private citizen, resident, and local traveler. Talk about removing parking on El Camino as it passes through Menlo Park has been an ongoing activity among city watchers for some time. There have recently been letters to the editors and emails to the city council about this. Their call is for making El Camino three lanes in each direction throughout the city, by relinquishing the curb lane now dedicated to parking.

Well, yes and no. The point that is usually made is that 3 lanes each way will increase traffic flow and thereby reduce traffic volume, which now becomes increasingly gridlocked throughout the downtown.

There is a rule of thumb in traffic management derived from the laws of physics: If you improve the flow, you increase the flow unless you also control volume. (That law also pertains to grade separations, but that's another discussion.)

Caltrans is determined to keep their state highway, El Camino, a throughway with as few impediments to traffic flow as possible. That may be in the best interests of Caltrans, but is it in the best interests of Menlo Park? Do we want to increase vehicular traffic in Menlo Park by enabling it?

Let me propose an alternative viewpoint, if only for the sake of discussion about this complicated issue. What if we did indeed eliminate parking on El Camino (which, without parking alternatives, will be strongly objected to by all the merchants along the street), but converting the curb lane to an express bus lane as well as turning lane into and out of side streets? There are such dedicated bus lanes presently in downtown San Francisco.

In our dedication to becoming a "green" city, ought we not discourage vehicular traffic and encourage urban mass transit? Would we not accomplish this by facilitating bus traffic through Menlo Park?

Rather than inviting Peninsula drivers to consider Menlo Park as a pass-through city, a third alternative to #101 and #280, why not make Menlo Park a destination site for drivers, encouraging downtown parking in parking structures above and below ground now under consideration, and thereby increasing the viability of retail?

The buses? North-South on El Camino, with increased shuttle service East-West connecting with them and with Caltrain. A step toward an improved local urban mass transit system.

Respectfully,
Martin

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Martin Engel
1621 Stone Pine Lane
Menlo Park, CA 94025
650:323-1670
martinengel@earthlink.net


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