Survey Results – Where Do You Want To Ride Bikes Across El Camino?

There are SEVEN primary El Camino bike crossings including the Palo Alto-Sand Hill intersection near the southern boundary of Menlo Park.

East-West Bike Crossings

Starting at the north end of Menlo Park the El Camino bike crossings include:

  • Valparaiso-Glenwood
  • Oak Grove
  • Santa Cruz
  • Menlo-Ravenswood
  • Roble-(Parking Lot)-Ravenswood
  • Middle – (Parking Lot)-Ravenswood
  • Alma to Palo Alto-Sand Hill

Survey Findings

This survey was announced in The Almanac on July 14, 2017 and on the Nextdoor social network, and most responses were collected during the following two weeks. No other marketing was undertaken. The survey was not designed to collect a statistically significant number of responses as this would have required an investment in marketing beyond the capacity of Re-Imagine Menlo Park. Nonetheless, the findings are useful and suggest the City would be well served by formal surveys that proactively encourage much greater resident participation. (Note: this survey remains open.)

70 of 100 households completed the entire survey and their views are summarized below. These households included 147 bicyclists.

Finding #1: The most popular destinations that require crossing El Camino are in descending order:

Tier 1 – Downtown Menlo Park
Tier 2 – Downtown Palo Alto
Tier 3 – Stanford, Burgess, Train station, Safeway, El Camino and Sand Hill Road
Tier 4 – On Ravenswood; the Laurel, Hillview and Menlo-Atherton schools

Finding #2: The most popular places bicyclists where bicyclists currently cross El Camino are in descending order:

1 – Menlo-Ravenswood (26% of bicyclists)
2 – Alma-Palo Alto-Sand Hill (20% of bicyclists)
3 – Oak Grove and Santa Cruz (15% and 14% of bicyclists)
4 – Middle, Roble and Valparaiso (10%, 9% and 7% of bicyclists)

Finding #3: The top choices for either new or improved El Camino crossings were ranked in the following descending order:

1 – Middle (26% of Top 2 Choices)
2 – Menlo-Ravenswood (24% of Top 2 Choices)
3 – Oak Grove (21% of Top 2 Choices)
4 – Alma-Palo Alto-Sand Hill (11% of Top 2 Choices)
5 – Santa Cruz and Roble (10% and 8% of Top 2 Choices)

Finding #4: If all the bike improvements in Finding 3 were actually implemented the most popular future crossings of  El Camino would appear to be in descending order:

  1. Menlo-Ravenswood
  2. Middle and Oak Grove
  3. Alma-Palo Alto-Sand Hill
  4. Santa Cruz
  5. Roble
  6. Valparaiso

Survey Background

The City of Menlo Park has long known that the lack of good options for residents to ride bikes across El Camino to reach schools, work, downtown, Burgess Park and other popular destinations remains a major problem. Good options mean safe, convenient and comfortable routes for bicyclists who have sufficient judgment and skills to ride on busy suburban and city streets where they must either share vehicle lanes or ride in dedicated spaces. This need and specific potential solutions were documented in 2004 in the City’s first and only bike network development plan, and restated in 2012, in the Specific Plan. However, no new high impact investments have been made in our formal community bike network.In August 2017 Menlo Park started a one-year field trial of bike lanes on Oak Grove; however, the city neither understands how bicyclists currently use its formal bike network and neighborhood streets nor what improvements bicyclists most want. And it currently has no plans to collect this vital information. Therefore, Re-Imagine Menlo Park conducted an informal survey to collect this information and share it with residents and our city government.The survey remains open to any resident who wants to contribute their ideas and views.