December 17, 2003

Back to the table of Contents Page

Classifieds

Palo Alto Online

So far, so good with Charleston corridor

by Don Kazak

Traffic calming in the Charleston corridor "may be a harbinger of good things to come" for Palo Alto.

At least that's what Planning Director Steve Emslie, who uttered the words at a Dec. 10 planning commission meeting, hopes.

For a city caught in a slew of bitter traffic-calming disputes between neighbors, the recent planning commission meeting on narrowing Charleston/Arastradero Road showed promise.

"We were expecting a room full of people" opposed to the idea, Commission Chairman Michael Griffin said later.

Resident after resident warmly praised the city's planning staff for coming up with a plan to make the corridor safer for bicyclists and pedestrians on a street where traffic travels close to 40 miles-per-hour despite 25 mile-per-hour speed limits.

"I am so delighted that something finally might happen to calm the traffic on Charleston and Arastradero," said resident Betty Lum.

Charleston/Arastradero are perceived as so unsafe "that most parents don't allow their children to bike to school," said Deborah Ju, president of the Charleston West Meadow Neighborhood Association.

Stories of near misses and of people and bicyclists hit by cars were repeated at the meeting. One woman said she had to time herself when crossing the road, finding a gap between speeding cars to run across the street.

The city's Planning and Transportation Commission voted unanimously to move ahead with a 12-month trial along the Charleston corridor, including reducing the roads from four lanes to two, with a third left-turn lane and median, along much of the corridor.

The $7.4 million plan to redesign the 2.2-mile corridor that serves 11 public and private schools will make it easier for pedestrians to cross the street, which will be narrowed by "bulb-outs" at intersections; make it safer for bicyclists; and turn what is now a wide, four-lane street into a more pleasant, tree-lined boulevard appropriate for the residential areas it serves.

The set of recommendations for the corridor will go to the City Council for a final decision Jan. 20.

Earlier this year, the city froze plans for several developments, like the Hyatt Rickey's and the Jewish Community Center, in the area because of concerns about the traffic impacts such large-scale projects would have on the area. The staff was given nine months back in April to come up with a plan, win community support, and put the changes in place.

The involvement of community members in a regular "stakeholder group," which met regularly with the staff -- in addition to four community workshops -- may have been key in reaching consensus on how to fix the corridor.

Still, Griffin cautioned against becoming too assured of its success in gaining support.

"These projects aren't trouble-free," Griffin said after the commission voted late Wednesday night, "so we should be prepared for some blow-back on this."

Don Kazak can be e-mailed at dkazak@paweekly.com

E-mail a friend a link to this story.