[ By Date ] [ By Message ] [ By Subject ] [ By Author ]
Feb. 13th, 2008
Menlo Park City Council:
At the joint study session with Atherton on Jan 29th, I requested that formation of a Quiet Zone for Menlo Park should be considered. A new Federal law passed in 2005, makes possible instituting Quiet Zones and many Cities are indeed in the process of getting or have gotten approval for them. (in California alone at least 17 )
I refer you to:
http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-IMPACT/2006/August/Day-17/i6912.htm
a link to the Federal Registry where the complete text of the law can be viewed.
In Menlo Park a Quiet Zone would benefit many residents and businesses. There is much talk about development along the tracks. As an example,if the Derry project is approved, 108 new homes will be constructed and all of these will be very close to the tracks. A Quiet Zone would certainly benefit all of those living in these new homes, as well the commercial interests in that development
A web site from the Union Pacific
http://www.uprr.com/newsinfo/horn.shtml#1
has much information on Quiet Zones.
The City of Richmond has indeed instituted a Quiet Zone; see:
http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/index.asp?NID=1167
If Richmond can do it, certainly we can.
At the study session, there was a claim that even if quiet zone was instituted in Menlo Park, the engineers could still blow the horns, the implication being that a Quiet Zone might well be ineffective. I point out the following section from the law:
Use of Locomotive Horns at Highway-Rail Grade Crossings; Final Rule
Willful
Section Violation Violation
----------------------------------------------------------------
Sec. 222.45
Routine sounding of the 5,000 7,500
locomotive horn at a grade
Now if a $7,500 fine is not enough to keep the horn from sounding that will be pretty amazing.
Quiet Zones are effective; we need one in Menlo Park. Please let us get started by funding a study for a Quiet Zone in Menlo Park
Morris Brown
Stone Pine Lane
[ Home ] [ By Date ] [ By Message ] [ By Subject ] [ By Author ] [ 05/06 Archive ]
Email communications sent to the City Council are public records. This site is an archive of emails received by the City Council at its city.council@menlopark.org email address. The posting process is automated and can cause formatting issues when viewed from the website. File attachments sent to this address can be viewed as a link from the main message body. Please note the City Council is also copied on each correspondence. This site can be viewed by the public and sorted by subject, date, author or message thread. The email address of the sender is not disclosed for security purposes. It is the City's practice to remove SPAM (Unsolicited Bulk Email) email from the Council email log. If you believe your email has been removed in error, please contact the City at ccin.log@menlopark.org.