We have a problem at Palo Alto Way crosswalk that San Mateo County’s Public Works (PW) can correct. The crosswalk crosses 4 lanes of traffic and this creates something called a ‘multi-lane threat’ where a car in one lane obscures the sight between pedestrians and motorists in the adjacent lane. One way to address this and improve safety is to implement an ‘Advance Stop Line’. You have seen those shark tooth lines that are placed well back of the crosswalk to safety separate pedestrians from motorists and to provide adequate stopping distance for cars.
While the crosswalk at Palo Alto way has a Shark tooth advance stop line, it was placed so close to the crosswalk that it failed to address the multi-lane threat and puts pedestrians at higher risk. That Shark tooth line also doesn’t include the left turn lane. It should because it allows those left turning cars to come right up to the crosswalk and thus block the view between crossing pedestrians and on coming motorists.
The Santa Cruz/Alameda Safety Task force members brought this engineering design flaw – the shark tooth line too close to the crosswalk — to the attention of PW in 2019. We have written PW several times over this past year that this problem exists and needs to be fixed. The solution seems to be as simple as moving the Shark Tooth advance stop line further away from the crosswalk to allow full visibility between motorists and pedestrians and greatly reduce the threat and risk. Further, this important stop line should include the left turn lane. One would assume that this could be done with available road maintenance funds.
We are asking for these missing safety issues to be addressed:
- Move the advance stop line – the shark tooth – further away from the crosswalk
- Include the left turn lane in the shark tooth stop line
- Add a pedestrian crossing bollard near the left turn lane to improve driver awareness
Community members have voiced concern and fear of feeling unsafe because of this issue. We have already had a death in this very crosswalk due to this problem. View the video below to see an actual extremely close call in San Mateo County where you can see this problem unfold. We don’t want another accident of this nature in our community. It is easily addressed.
Video credit to dashcam footage shared by our local ABC7 news: Girl Nearly Hit in Crosswalk near 400 block of Franklin Parkway in San Mateo.
Action – Ways to Help
Two ways to help resolve this problem and provide our community with a safety crosswalk, is to send an email to County Public Works and to our County Supervisor and management. You can use this email link to address an email that you can then write your note and send.
The other way to help get action is to leave a comment below. Your comment will be available for public view and be sent to County and Public Works management.
Thank you. Our community voice can make a difference for quick action from County.
Resources and Additional Information
Related Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfw2MDjLx8c
Well Written Article on Area Safety, mentions this crosswalk incident: Daily Journal: https://www.smdailyjournal.com/opinion/guest_perspectives/speed-and-safety-in-san-mateo/article_5679e02c-a124-11ed-b2a7-a31322f6e3e3.html
Authored Sep 2022, Safety@Safer4Us.com — Updated Feb 2023
Use of this important crosswalk has been very much improved this last year with the new crossing lights. I know many of us would be safer if this shark tooth stopping line could be moved back from the crosswalk. I think too, that the addition of a “Stop for Pedestrians” bollard/piling should also be installed in the middle of the crosswalk as it would make motorists more aware of the crosswalk. Thank you.
The safety of pedestrians crossing Santa CruzAvenue at Palo Alto Way would be greatly improved by moving the “shark’s teeth” warning farther back from the actual crosswalk so motorists in all four lanes can clearly see pedestrian activity. I urge the implementation of this simple enhancement.
The safety of pedestrians crossing Santa Cruz Avenue at Palo Alto Way would be greatly improved by moving the “shark’s teeth” warning farther back from the actual crosswalk. In this way, motorists driving in any of the four lanes can clearly see pedestrian traffic. Please implement this at your earliest convenience to improve neighborhood safety. Thank you for your consideration.
Please improve in Menlo Park the crosswalk safety at Palo Alto Way and Santa Cruz Ave.Thank you
Moving the shark teeth is just one safety improvement for this short corridor. The speed limit and monitoring also needs to be improved. Motorist drive so fast they don’t even notice a pedestrian on the side of the road. The flashing lights should help motorist know pedestrians are about to cross, but they don’t see it in time to stop. I would think an actual stop light for motorist driving south would help tremendously and would make motorist have to stop if the lights were red.
Motorists driving north just came off a stop, so they shouldn’t be driving so fast at that point, but seeing a pedestrian coming from four lanes over might be too difficult too. If a pedestrian is crossing and the light is red, they will see it in time to stop.
We have seen many near misses in this intersection. Moving the shark teeth should improve distance from the cross walk and pedestrian safety. Overhead pedestrian lights might improve visibility for the motorists coming in either direction. I’ve seen these on El Camino in Atherton/Redwood City.