Mom pushes for bike safety lanes before school opens

MENLO PARK — A Laurel School parent is spearheading an effort to get bicycle lanes painted on two streets in The Willows neighborhood, where Upper Laurel Campus is expected to open in October.

“I want to make Safe Routes a real priority,” said Jen Wolosin, who calls her effort the Laurel Mom Plan.

Safe Routes to Schools is a Menlo Park program aimed at enhancing access to local schools. The Willows is also home to Willows Oaks Elementary and German-American International schools.

The city’s Transportation Commission recently backed her proposal to add buffered bike lanes — rather than sharrows, in which bikes are not separated from cars — on Gilbert Avenue between Menalto Avenue and Willow Road, and along Walnut Avenue. That plan includes no-parking zones along several Willows streets and establishes a school zone with signs reducing vehicle speeds to 15 mph during dropoff and pick-up times. It has been forwarded to the City Council for review.

Wolosin said she’s concerned that Upper Laurel only has 50 parking spots, of which roughly 20 will be available to visitors, though there will be room for as many as 30 cars to queue on school grounds at one time.

“The success of the flow of traffic around Upper Laurel depends on the vast majority of kids walking and biking to school,” she said.

Wolosin also identified City/County Associations of Governments of San Mateo County grants worth up to $250,000 per project that could help fund the bike lanes. She is working on getting a neighborhood petition submitted to the city seeking to get the bike lanes approved before Upper Laurel opens.

Ultimately, she wants the bike route to extend from Gilbert, via Santa Monica Avenue to Coleman Avenue, to Oak Grove Avenue, via Ringwood Avenue to Edge Road, with additional stop signs at some intersections. On lesser traveled roads, such as along Santa Monica, she suggests less-invasive sharrows and parking restrictions.

She is also seeking a crossing guard at the Gilbert and Willow intersection.

“I won’t stop until we get this on the (council) agenda,” Wolosin said.