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At a meeting on May 7, the Menlo Park City Council voted to make the no parking zones and buffered bike lanes along Middle Avenue permanent in a 4-1 vote with Vice Mayor Drew Combs opposed. The council also opted to pilot a back-in parking design outside Nealon Park, at 800 Middle Ave., to respond to concerns about diminished parking. Menlo Park will also continue with the temporary closure of Blake Street to vehicular traffic at Middle Avenue.
The city will begin to design the new back-in parking stalls at Nealon Park over the summer, with construction starting in the fall or winter. The parking design will be piloted until summer 2025, when staff will return to the council with a final recommendation for parking design.
The buffered bike lane and parking ban along Middle Avenue was originally approved as a six-month pilot program by the council in February 2023, and installed in October 2023.
The red and yellow lines indicate new “no parking” zones and a buffered bike lane, respectively, on Middle Avenue in Menlo Park as approved by the City Council on May 7, 2024. The council approved a pilot program for back-in parking (purple rectangle) outside Nealon Park. The “X” marks a continued temporary road closure. Graphic by Jamey Padojino.
According to a staff report, the pilot program showed that over the six months it was installed, there were no significant changes in vehicle speeds, or vehicle, pedestrian and bike volumes. Parking surveys also showed that nearby cross streets were not overburdened with parking as parking demand shifted from Middle Ave.
In a public survey, 89% of drivers indicated no change to their driving patterns, and 60% of bikers felt safer.
However 38% of respondents said that they had difficulty finding parking, and attendees of stakeholder meetings indicated that they would like the town to work to alleviate parking demands along Middle Avenue, especially near Nealon Park.
Mayor Cecilia Taylor and Council members Maria Doerr, Jen Wolosin and Betsy Nash voted in favor of keeping the bike lane and parking ban.
“This is about our youth, and it’s about everyone, and it’s about the future vision for our community. So that’s why I’m supportive of this,” said Doerr.
“I live on Santa Cruz Avenue, where our parking was used for bike lanes and it actually has been a wonderful change,” said Nash. “It’s not a unique hardship for the people on that street.”
Fifteen community members, many of whom are parents of children who bike to school, commented in support of making the buffered bike lanes permanent. Residents cited increased biking safety for school-aged children, easier commuter biking, decreased car traffic and Vision Zero goals as reasons to make the buffered bike lane and Middle Avenue parking ban permanent.
“As Menlo Park grows, we have people … complaining and worrying about traffic, parking and congestion. We’re never going to get rid of cars, nor would we ever want to. The long-term solution is to advocate for more people around town to walk, bike and take public transportation as a way to reduce some of these concerns,” said Menlo Park resident Ross Silverstein.
Resident Emily Bailard said her 8-year-old transitioned to being able to bike to Oak Knoll School without an adult this year, in large part, because of changes made from the bike lane pilot.
Katherine, an Oak Knoll student, said “the new bike lane is very spacious and very helpful when I am getting to school.”
Many commenters also acknowledged that the changes will be inconvenient for other residents, but said that increased safety for bikers and pedestrians outweighs those problems.
“I do agree there was a loss of convenience for some of our neighbors, myself included,” said Sandy Napel, a resident of the Allied Arts neighborhood. “I would just ask that this loss of convenience be weighed against the improvement and safety for the adult and child pedestrians and bicyclists.”
Matthew Rascoff, co-chair of the Safe Routes to Schools Committee at Oak Knoll agreed, saying “it doesn’t have to be perfect. We’re showing progress, and we’re showing improvement. We shouldn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
Council member Wolosin also acknowledged the inconvenience that residents now face, but said that ultimately the new street design is worth it for safety.
“I think this is really a future looking endeavor in moving our city in the direction that we want to go in,” said Wolosin. “So I really wanna thank everyone who’s participated in this project. … I have not forgotten the many, many emails that have come in over the last couple of years from people who are agreeing with my position, people who are not agreeing with my position. Just because we’re not necessarily seeing eye to eye on this topic doesn’t mean we don’t respect and understand where you’re coming from.”
However, other community members were upset by the changes to the area, stating that the designs were unacceptable. Residents were particularly dissatisfied with the challenges that closing Blake Street and removing the parking along Middle Avenue has created.
“Since the reconfiguration of the parking with the pilot, I have not been able to walk in either direction down my block of Middle at almost any time without seeing cars parked in the bike lane and on the sidewalk, making both impassable,” said Neil Wolf, a resident of Middle Avenue. “You keep saying removing the parking and closing Blake street is going to make things safer, but it does not. It’s truly unsafe and much worse than it was before the pilot started.”
Vice Mayor Combs sided with the residents who are being affected by the parking removal, though noting that he is in favor of traffic calming measures in general.
“I do think that the complete removal of parking had lots of challenging effects for the residents on Middle,” said Combs, who ultimately voted against approving the permanent buffered bike lane and parking ban. “I’m not supportive, because I think that possibly there were other approaches that took into account the concerns and the impacts to the changes of the quality of life.”
Back-in parking at Nealon Park
To address parking concerns, staff proposed changing the current parallel parking in front of Nealon Park to angled back-in parking. This would increase the parking in front of the park from 14 to 26 spaces.
Taylor and Combs expressed concerns about drivers’ ability to park successfully in this uncommon parking configuration.
“It doesn’t take into account familiarity and norms,” said Combs. “It is different because you are pulling up and then backing into a confined space. That’s challenging, and it’s not something that you normally do. … I think it increases the danger of the street in this specific section of the street.”
“I’m not confident people can back up without hitting something,” said Taylor. “You have 26 people parking at whatever amount of times per day on a busy street, trying to get into an angled parking spot. … I’m just saying, I don’t believe that everybody has the same parking skills.”
She ended up supporting the pilot with the condition that staff explore widening the parking spaces to make backing in easier for cars.
This type of parking, though not very common, has been employed successfully nearby along Stanford Avenue near The Dish.
The permanent parking ban along Middle Avenue as well as the buffered bike lane and changes to Nealon Park parking were approved alongside a change to the speed limit along Middle Avenue. All of these changes were initiated as part of Menlo Park’s Vision Zero initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities and reduce traffic injuries in the city.
