Willow Glen Resident

Letters & Opinions

Speak Out

Two lanes on Lincoln
would slow traffic

As a seven-year tenant of office space on Lincoln Avenue, I read with interest the recent article in the Willow Glen Resident ("Rethinking Parking on Lincoln Avenue with fewer restrictions," April 12).

Having experienced chronic parking problems and dangerous pedestrian episodes on Lincoln, I'd like to suggest a solution to both problems: narrow Lincoln Avenue from four lanes to two between Coe and Minnesota avenues and institute angle parking. This would add a considerable number of parking spaces immediately near street-side businesses and significantly slow down the dangerous traffic on Lincoln Avenue, especially during rush hours.

Lincoln has become a thoroughfare between the Almaden Expressway and Interstate 280, and people seem to drive on it at rush hours like the street is an extension of the freeway.

My office overlooks the avenue, and I can tell you with confidence that the traffic rarely, if ever, is traveling at the posted speed limit of 25 mph.

It is dangerous to pull out of alleys onto Lincoln due to the speed of traffic, and even with the addition of new crosswalk warning lights, it is dangerous to cross the street at times.

Narrowing Lincoln Avenue would address both problems. Anyone familiar with Palo Alto's University Avenue would be familiar with this approach, and it hasn't seemed to have deterred business at all.

Joe Buczek

Willow Glen