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Menlo Park’s Valparaiso Hill is notoriously treacherous. Nicknamed Valpo Hill, the 0.2-mile stretch of curved road between Hallmark Circle at the top and Altschul Avenue at the bottom in the city’s Sharon Heights neighborhood is steep.
One very rough calculation put the hill at about a 14% grade – one reason it draws walkers seeking a cardio workout going up and skateboarders seeking a stomach-dropping thrill coming down.
The hill for years has been host to Menlo Park’s Skate Jam where longboarders competed for, among other feats, “gnarliest spill.”
Most recently, however, the hill has became the site of a community tragedy. Portola Valley teen Michael Enright, was driving an SUV that apparently hit a light pole on the street and rolled over near the bottom of the hill at Valparaiso and Altschul avenues on Saturday, Jan. 16. He died of his injuries the following Monday, and two other teens involved in the accident were also injured.
The hill has a history of traffic accidents. According to traffic data history obtained from the Menlo Park Police Department, there have been a total of six vehicle collisions on the hill since 1999, including the tragedy in January. In four of the other reported incidents, no injuries were reported, and in one, no details were provided.
In the aftermath of the accident, some people have urged the City Council to do something to make the street safer, and the Menlo Park City Council has begun to discuss what could be done to improve the street’s safety.
At the council’s Jan. 26 meeting, resident Sally Cole said she’d favor making the street one-way up the hill to improve safety.
“For cars, it is a very tricky section of the road to navigate,” she said. Plus, she noted, Altschul Avenue, as a one-way street through that part of west Menlo Park, is a popular route frequented often by walkers, runners and cyclists.
On Jan. 30, several council members expressed interest in doing something to improve safety on Valparaiso Hill.
Councilman Ray Mueller, who represents the district where the hill is located, said he wanted to see immediate attention paid to improving safety there. He said he frequently walks by the hill and often sees teens hanging out at the top.
“If there is an issue with teens coming down that hill, there’s going to continue to be an issue with teens coming down that hill,” he said.
Vice Mayor Betsy Nash said she agreed and asked how the city could go about making it a one-way street going uphill and favored enacting a simpler process for neighbors to coordinate having traffic calming measures installed on residential streets if they want them. “We’re making people advocate for safer streets,” she said. “That seems backward.”
“My goal is to prevent tragedy before it happens and (make) engineering changes to make our wold safer so kids can get around and make some teenage mistakes without fatalities,” Councilwoman Jen Wolosin said.
Mayor Drew Combs has also expressed interest in improving safety at Valparaiso Hill.
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I urge that the city be very cautious in making changes to this street and consider carefully what the impact of those changes is likely to be. For example, in this article there is discussion of making the road one-way uphill because teenagers are apparently dangerous going downhill. Well, where are the teenagers going to drive if they can’t drive down that road to get toward central Menlo Park? The only alternative is that they will drive through the Sharon Heights neighborhood streets to get to Avy. Is that a safer outcome? This would mean having teenagers drive through neighborhood streets past houses with families and young kids about.
A more common issue with the Valpo hill is that pedestrians frequently insist on walking in the (narrow) roadway for exercise. So cars driving up and down the road must constantly slow down or cross the double yellow line into oncoming traffic to avoid pedestrians. It is extremely dangerous both for the pedestrians and for the drivers trying to avoid them. Something should be done (clear signage? a proper paved pathway alongside the road?) to get the pedestrians out of the road.
From the Menlo Park Fire District
Sometimes strategic patience would seem to be the most prudent immediate course of action in tragic situations like this. All of the relevant facts need to be gathered and respect for those affected most by the loss of a life and injury to others needs to be balanced in the spectrum of time.
As the Fire Chief I would support a community discussion that favors the desires and will of local residents who would be directly and immediately affected by any change made to this roadway.
Fire Station 4 is located almost at the base of the hill and this roadway. Your firefighters responded to this incident and were on-scene in two minutes. At the very least any proposed change to this roadway would need to support and not compromise emergency first response.
In emergency first response seconds count and minutes matter because life and property hang in the balance. Decisions need to be made for the common good.
The Fire District does not support traffic mitigation devices that slow our response units and that do not comply with our standards. The use of any such devices or methods on this stretch of roadway may also present a safety hazard given the degree of slope and winding nature of the roadway.
We look forward to being included in any discussion or forum that involves our ability to properly serve the community and mitigate unacceptable risk or threats to the public.
Fire Chief Schapelhouman
I’m very sorry to hear about the deadly crash. We lived at the bottom of Valpo Hill for 13 years and now on the top of it for another 14 so we know the hill well. We also know Fire station #4 well and always loved having them near. I have never considered the hill to be dangerous more than any windy road. I wish there was more detail about the recent tragedy, but hitting the light pole near the bottom shows a speed and driver issue if not a seat belt one too. Would a one way road or sidewalks have made a difference? I’d like to know how any change would actually make it safer for the overall neighborhood. I am saddened by it but thinking it is a road safety problem seems dubious.
The road is problematic also because it is not constructed and banked properly. The section where the teens SUV tragically rolled over is banked away from the curve and thus driving down hill the car tends to want to roll off the road. furthermore, the sidewalk does not reach the neighborhood at all forcing people to walk the road. Most do not even know there are trails to get up top.
I would strongly urge the city to heed Fire Chief Schapelhouman’s suggestion of strategic patience in light of this tragedy. Careful consideration should be given to the wisdom and impact of diverting eastbound cars from Valparaiso onto hilly and winding residential streets. How would emergency response to the neighborhood be impacted with our main artery cut off? How might this change impact the safety of the many pedestrians walking our Sharon Heights roadways?
Shutting the upper stretch of Valparaiso to eastbound travel would redirect all traffic to the already overburdened Avy/Alameda intersection. The meandering route from the top of the hill to Avy/Alameda requires drivers to make unprotected turns and pass through an uncontrolled intersection, navigate cross-traffic that doesn’t stop, pass by an elementary and a middle school, and through several crosswalks heavily used by children walking to school. Is this on balance safer than driving down the hill?
Rather than the one-way proposal, consideration should be given to eliminating the parking spaces at the top of the hill to discourage teen parking activity and investing in an enhanced paved walkway for pedestrians. Our neighborhood would be the better – and the safer – for it.