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FARM HILL / JEFFERSON STREET “UN-IMPROVEMENT” PILOT 03 October 2016 Addressed to: council@redwoodcity.org; jmanzi@redwoodcity.org; farmhillfeedback@redwoodcity.org Dear Jessica, Redwood City Community Development, City Council Members; I wrote several times last year to express my extreme disagreement with the lane reductions on Farm Hill / Jefferson. It was easy to see for anyone who drives this road every day that this solution was not going to increase safety, reduce speeds or accomplish any of the objectives which justified the pilot. Now that we have lived with this insane inconvenience for a full year, the data supports what so many of us anticipated a year ago. Objective 1: Reduce vehicle crash rate by reducing the number of conflict points. It did not achieve this goal – the results were insignificant at best, but in actuality the number of accidents increased if you take into account all of the accidents which occurred (which for some reason despite promises were not included in the data.) In addition, there were more accidents on adjacent streets which have experienced an increase in traffic. The lane reductions actually increases the number of conflict points tremendously when you take into account all of the merges / unmerges that are now introduced (each of these is a conflict point.) These merges incite rage, frustration, confusion, anger, near misses, and aggressive driving. Why are you creating problems which didn’t exist before? Objective 2: was equally inconclusive. It is uncertain whether it’s safer to cross the street, but given that there are 15,000 drivers per day and a very small number of pedestrians, why is this Objective #2? Objective 3: has completely failed. There is substantial increase in travel times. However, you’re not properly measuring this to understand this metric. For instance, the wait time to turn right from Jefferson (westbound) onto upper Jefferson, is now much longer because of the pile up of traffic at that light, making it impossible for drivers to make a right on red which they could do previously. It takes longer to turn left onto McGarvey (from westbound Farm Hill) because you have to wait twice as long for cars coming down the hill single file. By the time you do get a break in the traffic, the light changes. I have personally had several near misses due to this new challenge which didn’t exist before! In addition, you have punished the commuters who are driving during the heavy commute times which was not a pre-pilot issue. Nothing has been accomplished to slow traffic down during off peak times (which was the pre-pilot issue). In fact, it is actually easier now to drive faster given that there is only one lane with plenty of space on both sides! Objective 4: drivers have shifted to streets which are much less safe, and much less capable of handling additional traffic. I personally take upper Jefferson consistently now whenever I’m heading northbound onto 280 (something I never did before.) The data supports that there is an increase in traffic on side streets which really were quiet neighborhood streets before! This reduces neighborhood safety overall! Objective 5: while the data seems to support your goals, I have not found this to be true at all. Whenever I am turning right from McGarvey onto Farm Hill, the wait is much longer because once again, I am waiting for traffic to flow single file rather than in parallel. Objective 6: has definitely NOT been met especially since you took your speed data while “coincidently” three motorcycle cops were on a vigilant mission to ticket speeders. This is completely disingenuous, and to think we would believe that this was ‘coincidence’ is an insult to our intelligence. If this were truly coincidence, then I highly urge you to buy a lottery ticket. The odds are about the same. 8.A. - Page 62