Issues continue to be identified through community discussion, emails received at our safety@UnivPark.org email address, and through comments on the website (UnivPark.org). This section then, is meant to capture those latest and last minute issues that haven’t yet been defined or incorporated.
While normal 2 traffic lanes stop and leave lanes clear for safer left turn exit from Menlo Commons, southbound motorists using the center lane as a traffic lane are not visible, do not stop, and travel into the path of exiting cars at a high speed.
Click on the File link below to see the full Safety Issue and proposed solution options. Have a suggestion or concern? Enter your Comment below.
Add “Keep Clear” to center turn lane
In addition to other improvements, an in pavement Keep Clear marking could be added to the center turn lane at the same locations as the current Keep Clear markings in the traffic lanes.
Consider Right turns from driveways and make a U-turn
Since the center turn lane is mis-used as a traffic lane, residents at Menlo Commons (and the adjacent Condo complex) could instead make right turns and then use U-Turns in order to go to north and downtown destinations. This would avoid the use of the center turn lane for exiting Menlo Commons.
U-turns and long alternate route may be problematic
Turning right from the Condo or Menlo Commons to service left turns to downtown or other north destinations adds a bit of confusion and additional problems:
1) it would probably be illegal for residents to turn right and then try to cross four lanes of traffic to get to the far left turn lane in order to make a U-Turn at Sand Hill and it puts the driver leaving MC in the same situation: A car using the center turn lane as a travel lane would still cause an accident as the resident tried to get over to that far left SCA lane.
2) Making a right and then making a right on Sand Hill would require a U-Turn on Sand Hill at the Sharon Park intersection and then a Left on to Santa Cruz. Since this safety issue is primarily a critical issue during peak hours, that U-Turn and subsequent Left would most likely be snarlled in peak Sand Hill traffic where often there is not room to make a U-Turn at that intersection due to traffic jam.
3) Making a right and then making right on Sand Hill has the alternative of making an additional right on Sharon Park (Sharon Heights Shopping Ctr) and then winding around thorugh neighborhoods and past La Entrada – again, peak times would probably coinside with school drop-off and pick-up.
While at first an interesting idea, a right turn only policy does not seem safer and would create a more complicated and much less desirable egress for the 120+ residents of Menlo Commons and the Condos.