Publication Date: Wednesday, June 09, 2004
TRAFFIC
Changing lanes, changing viewpoints
Changing lanes, changing viewpoints
(June 09, 2004) City options pitting bikes against businesses
by Bill D'Agostino
The City of Palo Alto is less than four months away from opening a bike tunnel that has been anticipated for more than a decade, but the question of how to make it safe for cyclists is pitting bicycle advocates against business owners.
The disagreement threatens to turn into the city's latest political flap over the always sensitive issue of traffic.
The 140-foot, $5.4 million tunnel currently under construction will run underneath the Caltrain tracks on Homer Avenue, past Alma Street, when it opens in September.
The problem arises over the fact that Homer is a one-way street. If it is not turned into a two-way thoroughfare, bicyclists heading downtown from the southwest end of the tunnel, say from the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, will have to traverse the fast and furious Alma Street.
"We don't have an optimal solution," admitted Palo Alto Chief Transportation Official Joe Kott.
Three choices are scheduled to go before the Planning and Transportation Commission on June 30.
The change preferred by some bicyclists wary of Alma is to transform one block of the two-lane Homer Avenue into a two-way street. The two blocks of High Street surrounding Homer would also be turned into a two-way street under this plan.
Nearby business owners, though, are strongly opposed to altering the streets' traffic-flows.
"You'd have a traffic jam on the corner of High Street" and Homer Avenue, said Ole Christensen, the owner of Ole's Car Shop on Homer. "It would be horrible."
Currently there is an average six-car back up during peak hours at the Alma Street and Homer Avenue traffic light, transportation engineer David Stillman noted. Shifting one of Homer's lanes would increase that to a projected 16-car line, and the queue would likely extend beyond the first block.
But bicyclists bristle at the idea of leaving the roads unaltered.
"It's like ignoring cyclists to throw them at the mercy of Alma," bicycle safety instructor John Ciccarelli said.
By leaving things as is, "we almost violate a trust that this is a bicycle/pedestrian facility," said Paul Goldstein, the chair of the Palo Alto Bicycle Advisory Committee. "Quite frankly, I feel that shouldn't be on the table."
Transportation officials, who are leaning toward leaving the street alone, point out that by using the traffic signal at Alma to control autos, bicyclists will have as much as 30 seconds before cars, trucks and SUVs start roaring down the street.
Regardless of which plan is picked, the traffic light at the Homer/Alma intersection will be the first in the city with a special notification for bicyclists. A white bicyclist light will alert riders when it's safe to cross the street. All car traffic will cease on Alma Street for 18 to 20 seconds while bikers and walkers cross the intersection.
The third option is a potential compromise since it would leave Homer Avenue the same for cars, but give cyclists a non-Alma option. It would add a bike lane on the right side of Homer that would go opposite the two lanes of auto traffic.
City staff is concerned, though, that this new "contraflow bike lane" would lead to more accidents with bikes. That's because drivers pulling out of an alley on this block of Homer Avenue would intuitively look only to the right for cars -- and miss any bikers coming from the left.
Bike advocates point out that signs can be added to alert drivers of bikers going against the flow.
This option has the additional downside of eliminating a handful of parking spots in front of Ole's Car Shop. Under this third option, the two blocks of High Street would still become a two-lane road.
"We already have a lack of parking," Christensen said.
Both alterations would cost approximately $10,000 for new signs and street striping.
The long-term solution to the problem, Kott said, is to turn both Homer and Channing avenues into two-way streets from Alma to Middlefield Road. But this requires more money than is currently available, as well as many outreach meetings to all affected neighbors.
Ole's Car Shop's owner is also concerned that the tunnel, once opened, will turn into a home for "delinquents" at night, since it will be near the Opportunity Center, a homeless center that is currently under construction.
The city should turn on the sprinklers every 10 minutes at night, Christensen suggested. "People would get wet and they wouldn't live there," he said.
Staff writer Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com
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