Menlo Park Moves Forward With Oak Grove, Delays El Camino Real

Bike Month has seen a lot of action so far this month, not just fun events and activities like Bike to Work Day, but also important decisions being made at the city council level.In Menlo Park, the May 3 City Council meeting had two key bicycle issues on the agenda. After a proclamation for Bike to Work Day May 12, they dived into the meaty stuff. The first was the Oak Grove Bike Boulevard. A proposal by the city’s Bicycle Commission to prioritize bicycle access on an east-west corridor linking downtown, El Camino, the train station, and several schools was supported by City Council. Council directed staff to begin scoping a study, which will include traffic counts and volumes, parking removal, and other factors.Also at the May 3 meeting, El Camino Real returned to the agenda after the city's study session in August, which directed staff to scope out a pilot buffered bike lane project on El Camino Real. The staff report for this month's meeting recommended delaying this project to better coordinate with the adjacent cities of Atherton and Palo Alto. Atherton is in the process of selecting a consultant to do a feasibility study of bike improvements on El Camino Real in its jurisdiction. Palo Alto is open to extending bike lanes on El Camino until Sand Hill.After communicating with city staff, the city’s Bicycle Commission Chair, and local allies, I attended the meeting and urged Council to identify a preferred alternative for north-south travel on El Camino Real, ideally protected or buffered bike lanes rather than a third vehicle travel lane ASAP so that staff can move forward. There were three speakers against and eight for the project.Unfortunately, there was a lot of public backlash online and in emails to Council, and the Council, with one exception, did not feel comfortable decisively moving forward, even though they all supported the pilot in August. Councilmember Kirsten Keith took a strong stance and made two motions to select first the protected bike lane alternative then the buffered bike lane alternative. Neither got seconded. Councilmember Peter Ohtaki was reluctant to act until traffic issues are dealt with better. His successful motion was to prioritize the Oak Grove east-west bicycle boulevard proposal and to look further at a buffered bike lane pilot on El Camino but only after the consultant addresses the Ravenswood bottleneck to figure out a way to address congestion and put in a bike lane. This motion passed 4-0-1 (Keith abstained). This issue will come back to Council possibly in June.Thanks to all who wrote emails and spoke in person to support both the Oak Grove Bike Boulevard and the El Camino Real bike lane pilot. We will need your continued support as both of these projects move forward. Stay tuned.