For Bicyclists:
Recent improvements to our biking
infrastructure are good progress but
we need continuous improvements in this area.
Going from Palo Alto to Mountain View
on California St., there is no
street sensor in the
bike lane at San Antonio. Bicyclists need to use the pedestrian walk
button or get in the left turn lane to get permission to cross the
street. There are quite a few other intersections with the same
problem. This needs to be fixed!
The Stevens Creek Trail is wonderful. I
want to see that extended as
far as it can go.
For Pedestrians:
New sidewalks should have a flat part
on driveways so that people can
walk down the street without hurting their ankles on the slope or
getting that nasty "stepping off a cliff without realizing it"
sensation we get when stepping off the edge while not paying attention
to what we thought was a flat surface.
At a Downtown Business Forum, the guy from Book Buyers talked about how
during the .com boom his store had enough money to put an awning on the
Castro Street side of the building above the windows. Unfortunately,
City Hall had tied up the project in red tape until the ability to pay
for the project had been spent on other things. Thinking about the
story, I remember how much nicer walking under awnings is on both hot
sunny summer days and rainy winter days. An awning also makes cooling a
place like that easier in the summer. It would be great if the entire
length of Castro Street between El Camino & Central was prezoned to
allow awnings if the businesses have the money to put them up.
There should be a sidewalk between
Rengstorff and the new REI shopping
center.
A pedestrian crossing between Target
and Trader Joes on Showers Drive
would be nice.
Walking precincts in the area between
Farley and Burgoyne, many people
complained about the condition of the sidewalks. There were lots of
cracks in the paving and other problems like that. Also in that area, a
guy said that people cut across the street to use the bus stop at
Burgoyne and Middlefield. His suggestion was to move the bus stop donw
to the light, so crossing at the light would make sense to the kids
that use the bus.
An emailer asks: "May I add an item to
the pedestrian section of the
wish
list: drivers
of over-sized vehicles not park their gas-guzzlers on sidewalks along
streets that pre-date SUVs, or face the same fines as for parking in
illegal zones."
Have a suggestion for this list?
