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7+ Years of Consulting & Collaborating

Palo Alto, California
Firm Role
Street design, multimodal transportation planning, parking and transportation demand management planning, transportation impact analysis and fee development, ordinance writing
Dates
1998 – 2005
Size
29,000 residents, 25.8 square miles
Honors & Awards
  • Certified as a Gold-Level Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists since 2003
Project Type
Place Type

In 1998, the City of Palo Alto engaged a team led by Siegman & Associates and Sebastian & Associates to tackle a major challenge: develop a plan for calming Embarcadero Road, a busy arterial, lined by schools and residences, which stretches from Stanford University to the Bayshore Freeway (US 101). The design, arrived at with extensive public input, replaces signals with low-speed modern roundabouts, and converts excess travel lanes into bicycle lanes, a stately tree-lined median, and safer crossings.

Siegman & Associates then joined a team led by Wilbur Smith Associates to craft the Palo Alto’s 2003 Bicycle Transportation Plan. The plan built on the city’s long history as a national leader in bicycling, laying out a comprehensive network of new lanes, trails, bicycle bridges, and quiet, low-traffic bicycle boulevards. Many have now been completed.

Subsequently, as a Principal at Nelson\Nygaard Consulting, Patrick Siegman continued to help Palo Alto’s planners and residents make the city more livable. As part of Palo Alto’s Zoning Ordinance Update, he directed the development of new parking standards, designed to help the city reduce traffic and promote transit-oriented development.

He then worked with city planners to craft a groundbreaking citywide Transportation Impact Fee. The fee, which supports Palo Alto’s efforts to minimize vehicle trips, is devoted solely to funding bicycle, pedestrian, transit, and transportation demand management programs. As a follow-up, he led the creation of a fee which funds the Charleston-Arastradero Road traffic calming project, a road diet for a heavily-trafficked arterial flanked by homes and schools. Both fees required Mr. Siegman to develop an innovative approach to the legally-required nexus studies, since they depart from the conventional “just fund road widenings” approach taken by most impact fees.

By working collaboratively and crafting custom-made solutions to fit Palo Alto’s needs, Mr. Siegman has helped the city implement its vision for a safe, sustainable, and prosperous community.

Images courtesy of Sebastian & Associates