Yup,
whatever they have done doesnt work. It takes 10 minutes to drive 200 yards along there at 8.00am

Speed bumps have not been used in Palo Alto for about 20 years, the City uses "speed tables" at the entrance and exits of collector streets only. Arastradero is considered an arterial, therefore, not eligible for speed tables - too much traffic.

I've noticed that singling down Arastradero to one lane in each direction has achieved the goal for which it was designed, the traffic has slowed way down, and is much safer for all the PAUSD students who must use that street. At last the City has done something right.

Yes it slows traffic, but there are other problems caused by narrowing a major artery to one lane. When the traffic is heavy, it is hard to enter Arastradero now. Worse are the two lanes go into one, then into two, then into one all along the Arastrdero/Charleston corridor. I've had people speed past me so they could get ahead of me even though they were supposed to merge behind me (and were behind me to begin with).

Why do two lanes at the railroad tracks (going north on Charleston over Alma) merge to one the opposite of what it is crossing over Middlefield? The former merging lane is on the left, and the latter is on the right. Go figure. But the bigger problem is that this increases the likelihood of accidents with all these two lanes going into one, then to two, then to one. Turing left from El Camino onto Arastradero goes from two turn lanes to one. And you have to watch out for those cars who turn right on red from El Camino too. Will we hear about the rate of accidents compared with the way it was?

Mom -

Speed bumps were just installed (last week) on North California from Middlefield to Embarcadero. There have been speed bumps for years on Channing. So no, it hasn't been 20 years since they were used, though Arastadero would not seem to be an appropriate spot for them.

Palo Alto Mom: Those are not speed bumps, they are "speed tables" on Channing designed to allow you to drive over them at 25 MPH which is State law. Both California and Channing are collector streets.

If you go into the City's website under traffic you'll see the criteria for installing "speed tables".

I don't care what you call them. You are picking nits. Yes, traffic has slowed down. No, it is not an improvement as the same number of people still have to get through there every day. One way to slow down the traffic without spending a lot of money and making us all sit with our engines idling would have been to post lower speed limit signs and then enforce the speed limits. We could have kept more lanes to move traffic efficiently, but reduced the safety problems which are caused by drivers who don't follow the laws, not by everybody. Yes, Arastradero is an 'artery'. It has to accommodate a lot of traffic. You have succeeded in making it more difficult for everyone, as well as less environmentally friendly.

I don't normally drive any of these places, but I have to mention that these averages and anecdotal comments are not very objective.

Maybe choking traffic from two lanes into one lane slows the average traffic down, but what does it do to that one or two random people that are in a hurry and will make dangerous moves to get an inch ahead if they see an opening? What does it do to people's stress levels too.

I agree, lower the speed limit and then position one of those radar speed machines like is in front of Jordan on Middlefield.

I don't know if they are ever used for enforcement, but warnings could be giving out, and maybe video could be taken to see how it is that people behave in that area when they are driving.

Lots of times it is not just speed, but bad driving and judgement that is the problem. We have so many people that do not seem to know how to drive at any speed.

It seems like these days I see a lot more people driving poorly than I do police giving out tickets.

School commute corridor traffic calming measures have helped to reduce some safety issues along this 12-school corridor.

1) Truck traffic on the East Charleston/Arastradero school commute corridor is still heavy.
2) Reducing traffic to one lane in each direction has achieved the goal for which it was designed, the traffic has slowed way down, and is much safer for all the PAUSD students who must use that street.
3) It is much safer to enter East Charleston Road now. When this corridor had two lanes many cars (especially SUV's) drove too fast and changed lanes recklessly.
4) We have many new developments feeding into East Charleston Road: Hyatt Development, Campus for Jewish Life, BRIDGE Housing, AltairePaloAlto, and the Tree House Development to list a few examples. These developments increase traffic.

Resident, You're missing the point. Yes, there are all these developments feeding traffic into the corridor. This is turning into gridlock for people who must travel through there. Making all these people sit in their cars for long periods of time when there is plenty of room for more lanes of traffic is not an improvement. As I said before, enforcing the laws and having reasonable speed limits would work to make it safer while still allowing those who must go through there to go through in a reasonable amount of time. Why is this so hard to grasp?

Again yesterday I was traveling that corridor and felt like I was being jostled aside when it came to merging into one lane. I had a car try to nudge past me that was clearly behind me but was trying to speed up to pass. This happened going north and then again going south. Nerve wracking to say the least. I wonder if there are accidents occurring because of this lane merging.

Slowing traffic to a crawl? Is that a success? Taking 10 minutes to get from El Cam to Foothills doesn't sound like success to me? Unless of course you mean by foot.

All the problems you are experiencing on Arastradero we have experienced on Charleston. Yes, cars speed up to get ahead of you as the lanes are reduced from two to one lane but you get used to it and you let the speeders go ahead.

I wonder just how many of you who are complaining now actually attended the outreach meetings to find out what was to happen to Arastradero. You've had plenty of opportunities to connect with the Transportation Department and City Council. Complaining after the decision has been made and the money has been spent never works in this City.

Where and when do these community meetings occur at which these types of decisions are made?

Were there signs on Arastradero itself saying: "There is a proposal to significantly change the traffic pattern on this street, please attend the meeting at ... on ..."? If there were such signs, they were too small for me to notice.

Or better yet, instead of justifying a decision by saying, "the money's already been spent", couldn't there have been a pilot program to place cones (or whatever) to show us drivers how the proposed re-striping would change traffic before spending the money?

I am bringing to light that the current situation is a pilot program that has failed. The fact that the city spent more money than it should have to conduct this pilot program is a fault of the city's process, not a fault of those of us who see its failure.

I could not agree with David's post more. I read all the local PA papers, the Mercury News and this forum every day and I have never seen any notice of community meetings to discuss this either. Why is this so difficult to publicize these meetings?

And yes, a pilot program with removable devices should be utilized like the ill-conceived narrowing of Middlefield a while ago.

David and Palo Parent, it seems to me that community input is kind of a joke that they local government seems to try to find creative ways to avoid.

For example, the 20% or so increase in garbage fees that the city says it will cancel if 90% of Palo Alto residents complain in writing and bring it to City Hall by 9-20.

That is not representation of the people, that's just pretend democracy. Same with these traffic changes. Palo Alto has some of the silliest traffic situations that do not seem to not get a lot of very intelligent design.

I also agree with David. There was no warning for those of us who drive through this area, unless we happened to be in the loop about local transit. A temporary phase would have been instructive and given us all the chance to respond to this effort to control us. People who drive unsafely will do so no matter what you do with the road. Also, I'm surprised anyone can get from El Camino to Foothill in ten minutes. It often takes me half an hour.

Palo Parent says: "Why is this so difficult to publicize these meetings?" Look on the City's website.

This was phase 2 of the Charleston lane reduction several years ago. All the meetings were made beforehand and included the Alma Plaza scenario. Charleston was narrowed in two places as phase 1 and the idea was that the following summer Arastradero would be narrowed. This was delayed for some reason until it "suddenly" happened this summer with very little fanfare. I don't know but I suspect that they had very little publicity about doing it this time as it had been agreed several years ago. There was plenty of protest then, but the too much traffic in our backyards brigade, led by Wilkie Way residents, spearheaded getting this done. So the blame can be put in their court.

Wilkie Way shall be my new shortcut when ever I go over that way.

Wilkie Way residents had nothing to do with the redesign of Arastradero Road. The redesign of the entire Arastradero/Charleston corridor was spearheaded by the PTA Leadership as part of their "safe routes to school" program. Also, there was a public meeting I think held at Juana Briones School to discuss the redesign of Arastradero Road just prior to work beginning.

Here is an article from 2003

Web Link

Deborah Ju, I believe, is a Wilkie Way resident.

Here is another article, this time from 2006

Web Link

It appears that there were a lot of meetings for residents in 2006

Excellent articles, they show how long range thinking and analysis went into this project.

Resident says: "Deborah Ju, I believe, is a Wilkie Way resident." - She is not.

At Monday night's (9/13) City Council Meeting, Council is due to appoint a Blue Ribbon Task Force for Infrastructure. On the list of future infrastructure needs to be analysed by the Task Force is Phase 3 of the Charleston/Arastradero Corridor project.

Phase 3 includes installing raised medians down the middle with tree plantings. The plan is to create the Charleston/Arastradero Corridor an attractive avenue from one end of Palo Alto to the other. So now that Phase 2 is finished it's on to Phase 3.

Great, at least Phase 3 will give those sitting in the huge traffic backups something to look at.

I am in favor of Phase 3 (installing raised medians down the middle with tree plantings) and also in favor of those complaining about the safer traffic conditions on the school commute corridor leaving earlier from home when they start their commute.

I'm in favor of adding the lanes back in, posting reasonable speed limits, and making sure all traffic rules are enforced. I'm in favor of making this 'artery' flow rather than blocking it. Yes, leaving earlier is the only option we have with this plan. That doesn't make it the right one.

I'm in favor of traffic getting where it needs to get efficiently. At present this is very inefficient.
I am also in favor of bikes using Maybell, Donald and other streets to get into the back entrance of Gunn. Very few bikes need to enter Gunn on Arastradero although many bikes may need to cross it to get to the back entrance.

Since the goal was "to reduce speeding and improve pedestrian and bicycle safety" not to improve car travel, it sound like it is succeeding.

I disagree with a 'goal' that may improve the commute of some, but makes it very difficult for the rest. The goal is wrong. Change the goal to include everybody.