Bicycle Ban on Los Altos Hills Road (El Monte)

For those following this... Jeff and I traded email. He plans to draft a letter for SVBC opposing the Los Altos Hills NO BIKES stencil and we'll send it off to the city and where ever else it needs to go.

I took a few pictures of the new stencil, the pics are located here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9677492@N08/

and in case you are unclear the intersection is located here:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=moody+and+elena,+los+al...

I wanted to note that the new trail that bypasses this section of road is indeed nice and avoids not only a small hill but a narrow lane that has to be shared with vehicle traffic as well. It's so good, in fact, that I think many cyclists who learn about it will perfer to use it. But the stencil is completely unacceptable and needs to go. As I took the pictures many cyclists rode by right over the stencil . . . if you don't know the trail connects . . . you won't know to use it. I doubt that trail shows on any map outside of Foothill Campus. There is no stencil coming from the 280 side of the campus, only returning.

The letter went out this afternoon. See the bottom of the letters page:

http://bikesiliconvalley.org/advocacy/letters

I emailed Richard Chiu over the weekend, with comments almost identical to those in the letter that Jeff sent (thanks for taking the time Jeff!). I haven't received a response yet.

One thing I don't agree with is that the adjacent path is good enough. Perhaps I'm being picky, but I like to choose what is more comfortable, taking both traffic and road conditions into account. And I'll take an off road path any day if it is built properly. But this path is not.

The path has a few shortcomings that add up: it is narrow, the surface is not up to road standards (wavy), there is a hazardous bollard and sharp curve at the narrow bridge, and of course the eastern intersection is a bit loony. A basic test is this: does the facility act like a true roadway and is it good enough for moped use? This path is not. With a little bit of extra effort, however, this could have been an excellent path.

I rode the path about a dozen times before I reached this conclusion, and now I just don't bother with it anymore. (During my final, aborted trip, I found that the path was being blocked by fireman doing some sort of path saturation exercise with their fire hoses. You don't find roadways arbitrary blocked by events like this!)

Hopefully the city comes to their senses quickly. Though this does make them look like they are still living in the 1970s.

Jim

I just received this email from the Town's Public Works Director. Whatever we did, worked.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: New "NO BIKES" marking in Los Altos Hills
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:21:34 -0800
From: Richard Chiu rchiu@losaltoshills.ca.gov
To: Bob Shanteau rmshant@gmail.com

Bob,

Thanks for the information. The pavement marking was originally installed to encourage bicyclist to use the new pathway through the college. It was brought to our attention that some drivers may act more aggressively towards bicyclist with the markings in place.

The Town wants to encourage various modes of transportation and does not want to do anything that would result in more drivers behaving badly. As a result, the Town has temporarily covered the markings and made arrangement to have it permanently removed by early next week.

Thanks again.

Richard Chiu
Public Works Director
Town of Los Altos Hills
(650) 947-2516

I rode through the area five times last week: eastbound and westbound on El Monte Rd, eastbound and westbound on the Multi-Use Path that's labeled "Bike Route", and eastbound on the (one-way) campus road.

That segment of El Monte Rd is a fine place for bicycling. It has recently been paved or resurfaced so the asphalt is nice and smooth. I noted no wheel-catcher drainage grates or intersections with short sight lines. The only intersections are a couple of driveways on the south side of the road. If City Council is concerned for cyclists' safety, perhaps there's been a series of muggings in that area, since it lacks streetlights?

The one-way campus road is fine for bicycling, with no surface problems, though there are a lot of minor intersections that are pretty busy with parking lot traffic.

The MUP is no worse than any other MUP for use at MUP speeds - 15mph max. Westbound a cyclist might gain enough speed on the long gentle downhill that they'd need to exercise particular care on the curves and near the bridge. The bollards at both ends are as much a problem as bollards on any such installation. (Why were these installed on a newly built facility, when cyclists are working to get them removed from other facilities? Do they anticipate frequent vehicular incursions, perhaps at the west end near the fire station?)

Eastbound on the MUP, the intersection with El Monte Rd at the campus entrance is a mess. There's a sign saying the path ends and the project will be completed in 2009. Presumably that means they will install a dedicated bicycle signal phase, and prevent right turns on red, because the geometry violates the design guidelines required for traffic to operate in the ordinary way. I considered trying to proceed eastbound with the left-turning traffic, but I chickened out. Instead, I backtracked to the pedestrian crosswalk connection west of the bridge that provides bicycle access to the campus road. It would be good for the campus to erect a temporary sign (until the dedicated signal phase is implemented) on the MUP near that crosswalk, saying there's no access from the MUP to eastbound El Monte, and eastbound cyclists should use the campus road.

But now that the paint is ground off the road it's no longer an issue.