The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About12/10/2019 Item 2, Cooper Wilbanks, Megan From:Allan Cooper <allancoope@gmail.com> Sent:Monday, December To:Schwartz, Luke; Fukushima, Adam; Advisory Bodies Subject:Letter To The Active Transportation Committee Attachments:112_09_19...lettertoactivetranscomm.pdf Dear Luke & Adam - Would you kindly read this letter over and forward it to the Active Transportation Committee? This letter pertains to your December 10, 2019 Agenda Item #2 titled "Project Prioritization In the Active Transportation Plan". I would also like this letter included in this upcoming meeting's correspondence file. Thank you! - Allan 1 Save Our Downtown _________________________________________________________ Seeking to protect and promote the historical character, design, livability and economic success of downtown San Luis Obispo. To: San Luis Obispo Active Transportation Committee, Luke Schwartz and Adam Fukushima  Re: Item #2 Project Prioritization In The Active Transportation Plan From: Allan Cooper, Secretary Save Our Downtown Date: December 9, 2019 Honorable Chair Roberts and Committee Members - Save Our Downtown is encouraging you to give top priority to pedestrian-related improvements. Why? Because traffic calming, which is a critical part of creating a walkable environment, has the added benefit of contributing to safer bike riding and safer motoring. Road “diets”, mid-block crosswalks, scramble intersections, synchronized traffic lights, artistic crosswalk painting and bulb-outs are not only a necessary part of improving the pedestrian environment, but they also serve double duty when providing for the safety of our bikers and motorists. We are also urging you to give our Downtown Core first consideration when making these pedestrian improvements. This is based on a number of factors. First, safety/collision trends as presented in the City’s Annual Traffic Safety Report have revealed that pedestrian safety is a major concern along the Santa Rosa corridor. Though bicycle collision trends have been on the decline since 2009, pedestrian collision trends have remained static and have averaged 27 per year between 1999 and 2016. This is an unacceptably high number. The high collision rate locations involving pedestrians are divided evenly between the Downtown Core (17) and the neighborhoods surrounding Cal Poly (18). According to our source (2016 Annual Traffic Safety Report https:// www.slocity.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=18904), most of these pedestrian collision intersections are located along Santa Rosa Street. Second, the economic benefits which accrue to enhanced pedestrian safety in our downtown include: 1) increased retail and entertainment activity; 2) increased patronage of hotels along with extended hotel stays; 3) increased patronage of our cultural facilities; 4) increased desirability to locate more offices in our downtown core; and 5) increased desirability for downtown living. Third, because our downtown normally attracts a higher concentration of pedestrian activity, the benefits of downtown pedestrian enhancements are more far-reaching. In other words, the dollars spent on enhancing pedestrian safety downtown will go further than when spent on pedestrian safety improvements elsewhere. Finally, improving the pedestrian environment in our Downtown Core will not only bring benefits to the retail and employment centers of our town, but will also benefit our local schools including Mission College Prep Catholic High School and Old Mission Grammar School as well as our parks, recreational and cultural facilities. The latter include the Mission Plaza, Cheng Park, Emerson Park, the Ludwick Community Center, the County Historical Museum, the Children’s Museum, the SLO Art Museum and the SLO Repertory Theater. We thank you in advance for the time and consideration you have given us in this matter.