Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council,

We are requesting that the City Council pull Item 15 from the May 28, 2024 Consent Calendar and direct the following as part of the approval of the Pavement Rehabilitation Project:

DIRECTLY AS PART OF THE REPAVING PROJECT:
1) Retain, don’t eliminate, the EXISTING bike lanes from Highland to Storey;
2) Add bike lanes from Storey to Peyton since the road width is the same as from Highland to Storey;
3) Add bicycle sharrows from Peyton to Walnut as is being done elsewhere as part of the repaving project; and
4) Add “bulb outs” on each side of the unprotected crosswalk at the top of Kirby as is being done elsewhere on Escalona.

DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE REPAVING PROJECT:
5) Add bicycle sharrows from Walnut to Bay;
6) Add signage as suggested by City staff regarding pedestrians in the roadway from Walnut to Bay; and
7) Add speed humps and other traffic calming on all of Escalona.

Some Escalona neighbors are concerned that this may in some way impact the evaluation of our traffic calming requests as part of the current competitive funding process.  However, Greg Larson has explained that would be both unlikely and unethical based on his prior experience as a city manager for three cities (Los Gatos, Cupertino and Milpitas) and as a department director in three other cities (San Jose, Scottsdale and Santa Cruz).

As a reminder, Escalona is designated as a bike route in the City’s transportation plans.  However, Escalona from Highland to Bay is the only street of all the ones immediately perpendicular to or parallel with Escalona that does NOT have at least two of the following bicycle and pedestrian safety features: speed humps, bike lanes, continuous sidewalks, sharrows, or wider roadway widths.  In fact, Escalona from Highland to Bay DOES NOT HAVE EVEN ONE of these essential safety features despite the high volumes of pedestrians and cyclists in the roadway with sometimes speeding vehicles.

Help us make Escalona safer for pedestrians and cyclists.