Traffic/Parking Liaison

Neighbor Alan Whitaker has volunteered to replace John Canata and deal with neighborhood traffic and parking issues with Google and the City.  Alan  replaces John Canata, who initiated this position and filled it since 2018.  See History, below.

Alan sees all the messages posted to the mln email list, but if you want to discuss a traffic or parking concern with him, contact him at trafficliaison@montaloma.org.  Exception: Comments about Waymo driverless cars should be sent directly to waymo.com/contact/feedback or by going to waymo.com and scrolling down to Contact Us.

History of the Traffic/Parking Liaison position: Neighbor John Canata volunteered to deal with neighborhood traffic and parking issues with Google and the City, and was appointed by the MLNA Board in early 2018 to the position of MLNA Traffic and Parking Liaison.  John coordinated with our Google X contact and the city’s traffic engineers.  One of John’s suggestions to help keep everyone safe resulted in the red flags on the stop signs at each end of the Google X driveway that connects Nita with Mayfield.  An improvement in January 2019 was to have “Cross traffic does not stop” signs posted on the Thaddeus and Independence entrances to W. Middlefield.

John and then-MLNA President Linda Harvey met on June 18, 2018, with two Google X representatives and a city traffic engineer.  They discussed the traffic and parking complaints that neighbors had reported on the mln email list, and visited the problem areas.  The traffic engineer took many notes and photos and later sent John this message:
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I’ve discussed the concerns that were brought up at our June 18 meeting with the Senior Traffic Engineer. These are the improvements that we came up with to best address the issues that were discussed:

  • Significant tree trimming of the NW and NE corners of Nita/Nita (Code Enforcement will contact the property owners).
  • Parking restrictions in the form of red curb on the east side of Nita Avenue (~30 ft. from the private driveway).
  • Residents on the west side of Nita Avenue can contact us directly with red-curb requests adjacent to their driveway.
  • Reflective sign-post panels, “All-Way STOP” plaques, and a “floppy” pedestrian sign for the crosswalk at Whitney/Mayfield.
  • Request for police enforcement of speeding, yielding to STOP signs, and yielding to pedestrians at Whitney/Mayfield.
  • Reflective sign-post panels, reflective markers, advanced warning signage, and “floppy” pedestrian signs for both crosswalks along Mayfield.

The City does not plan to install parking-restriction signage on either side of Nita Avenue north of the private road at this time.  City staff is still considering additional improvements that need more thought and deliberation, and will continue to monitor these locations as these improvements are implemented.

Please allow three to four months for Traffic Engineering staff to make the necessary field reviews and to create the work orders, the signs to be made and items to be ordered and received, and for our Streets crew to install the improvements.  This is a significant amount of work, so thank you and the Monta Loma neighborhood for being patient.  I will inform our police sergeant of our enforcement request today.

I will send a separate email to Google X staff to collaborate regarding the parking restrictions along the bike lane on the north side of Nita Avenue, and some other improvements for the crosswalks along Mayfield.

Thank you for helping us keep the Monta Loma Neighborhood safe and for all your efforts as the Monta Loma Neighborhood traffic liaison.
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