About 180 Midtown Palo Alto residents have signed a petition urging the City Council to reject the planned El Dorado Avenue bike and pedestrian tunnel. They argue the project would funnel dangerous cut-through traffic onto their narrow residential street.

The petition, collected at a white table on the corner of Bryant Street and El Dorado Avenue, lists lost parking, increased traffic and safety risks for children walking to El Carmelo Elementary School among its objections. Organizers say a proposed traffic light at Alma Street and El Dorado would draw cars onto a block that can barely handle two-way traffic now.

"If they put a traffic light there, it'll be the only traffic light between Churchill Avenue and Grocery Outlet," David Hung, a petition organizer who lives near El Dorado Avenue, told Palo Alto Online. "We're thinking that'll be a car magnet."

The City Council selected El Dorado as its preferred tunnel location in December 2025. The decision followed a unanimous recommendation from the council's Rail Committee: Councilmembers Pat Burt, Ed Lauing and Julie Lythcott-Haims. The tunnel would close a 1.3-mile gap between existing Caltrain crossings at California Avenue and Meadow Drive, the longest such gap along the rail corridor in Palo Alto.

Two design alternatives are under review. Alternative A1 would end at Alma Street with a new traffic light, at an estimated cost of $72 million. Alternative A2 would extend under both the Caltrain tracks and Alma Street at $87 million but would require the city to acquire two parcels containing four homes at 110-130 and 178 El Dorado Avenue. City consultant Kittelson & Associates has said A1 scored higher on five of seven evaluation criteria, Palo Alto Online reported.

The neighbors are also pitching their own alternative. They call it the Loma Verde–Alma Median Hybrid: a protected bikeway on the west side of Alma running parallel to the tracks, starting at Loma Verde Avenue with a traffic light there, then connecting to a short tunnel near Park Boulevard.

Paul Aplin, who lives on Emerson Street near El Dorado, said the speed difference between Alma and the residential street creates a hazard. Cars turning off Alma don't have time to see pedestrians or parked-car doors, he said.

Linda Alpin, also on Emerson Street near a Matadero Creek cul-de-sac, said the longer A2 tunnel design could block access to her block entirely.

Residents held a community workshop on Thursday, Aug. 27, at Rinconada Library and met with Councilmember Lauing on Monday, Aug. 31, to present the Loma Verde alternative. Lauing called the proposal constructive and said the city should examine it, according to Palo Alto Online.

The opposition comes as the broader rail grade separation program faces a roughly $1 billion funding gap, as we reported Sept. 2. The Planning and Transportation Commission is scheduled to review the El Dorado crossing alternatives on Sept. 30, with a City Council review set for Dec. 7.