Why Alma Street is always 1/2 closed for construction Palo Alto Issues, posted by Alma Elementary school parent driver, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 13, 2010 at 6:46 am
I drive to Alma Street many times a day, since I live on Kellogg Avenue, and very close to Alma. I drive 2 kids to Hoover Elementary School that starts at 8AM. I have to leave home with 2 5 year old on the back car seats at 7:30 when there is a ton of PALY parents driving their older kids to High School. These Palo Alto High School parents drive their spoiled teenagers crossing Churchill, then Churchill becomes crowded, so they use Kellogg and clog it all the way to Emerson every single weekday. That creates the first nightmare in early morning for me. Because of that: The traffic is miserable before 7:45 when more than One thousand 4 hundred Paly teachers, faculty, workers and Parents and their spoiled students teens flock like a car bird migration. More high School kids should let their older parents rest at home and ride their bikes to school. Spring in coming and next week is all sunshine and warm! :). But the pain do not stop here: The street construction workers have already closed one lane in 2 or sometimes 3 parts of Alma from the point I fight to get to Alma until I turn right on Charleston Road. The closures of ALMA have been going on for a couple of month now. The asphalt on Alma is deplorable, with shovel patches all over. the Center line is almost gone. the division between the each lane is also in bad shape. You just drive by adjusting you car in the best way comparing to the other cars. Alma is by far the most busy, with more cars crossing any point per minute than El Camino or any other Road in Palo Alto. When is all the digging done? Are they going to re-asphalt the surface of the street when work is done? Are the Elderly Paly parents going to stop treating their grown up kids, and get them a bicycle?
Posted by Paly Parent, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Mar 13, 2010 at 9:56 am
Hoover Parent.
You have chosen to go to a school across town and you choose to drive your kids to school rather than go to the neighborhood school where you could walk.
Many parents do drive their kids to school and many drive themselves to school. A school of nearly 2000 students also has a high number of faculty which also need to get to school. However, if you look at the bike racks at Paly you will see them overflowing and more bike racks are brought in each year. If you see the number of bikes crossing Alma at Churchill at 7.30 - 7.50 each morning you will see a flood of bikes at every green light.
This is just one entrance. If you look at the number of kids waiting for the Embarcadero shuttle, or the numbers of kids walking to school, you will realise what 2,000 students plus staff look like in real terms. Also, Paly is slated to get much bigger.
Posted by palo alto mom, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Mar 13, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Hoover Parent - I hope that when you are an "elderly parent" of a 13 or 14 year old "grown up kid" you are no longer driving them to school. You chose Hoover as a school for your children and you choose to drive them to school. Why it ok for you to drive your children, but it is not ok for other parents to do the same? Not everyone lives close enough to Paly (or Gunn or JLS or Terman or Jordan) to bike or walk.
If you have an issue with traffic on Alma, use a different road, ride bikes with your kids or leave earlier. And the cars should not be crossing Alma at Churchill between 7:30 and 8 because it is left turn only at that time.
Posted by Elderly parent, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Mar 13, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Let's see now. You drive on Alma "many times a day," you drive your kids to school, and you are complaining that Other people create traffic jams. Gotta think about that one.
Parents of high school children are elderly? Gotta think more about that one too. er, how old are you?
Posted by palo alto mom, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Mar 13, 2010 at 4:52 pm
I have to admit that I like the idea of "spoiled students teens" letting their "older parents" "rest at home" in the morning :) I'm also glad to hear that "Spring in coming" and that as an "elderly parent" I should be "going to stop treating their grown up kids, and get them a bicycle? " :)
Posted by Gunn and Terman Parent, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Mar 13, 2010 at 8:38 pm
Hello! you have choices. Very easy go to your neighborhood school and stop complaining. Yes I do drive my children, but they are not spoiled. They are just like to have a mother who cares. Are you jealous? They soon will be out of life, and I will rest then. As for you, I will feel sorry to have you as my mother. You said things, and call people names (spoiled, older) without thinking if they are offensive or not.
Posted by palo alto parent, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Feb 14, 2012 at 3:03 am
I live on the same street, most likely the same block, I even think I know who posted this complaint. My kids go to our neighborhood schools .... we have no issues. We have PALY on one side and Castilleja on another and yet it is nice and quiet after 8:15 a.m. Hoover is nice, Addison (neighborhood school) is also very nice. They are all good schools, no reason to add complications to one's life by driving cross town in the middle of morning traffic, but if this is your preference then just deal with the consequences of a longer commute. Best to you and your children. Didn't you guys end up renting a place closer to Hoover or am I thinking of a different Kellogg Ave resident whose kids go to Hoover? P.
View in an RSS Reader
E-mail this topic.
Print this topic.
