HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/8/2020 Item 20, Finger
From:Helene Finger <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Active Transportation Plan Study Session
Dear Mayor Harmon and City Council Members,
Thank you for this opportunity to share comments on the City’s Draft Active Transportation Plan (ATP). The ATP’s vision
of creating connected bikeways is spot on, but as stated on page 84, the analysis for the bike plan only looked at
connecting routes on major roads and failed to include SLO’s amazing network of bike paths in the bikeway analysis.
Since this study session is the time to consider ways to improve the plan, I encourage asking staff to include already
built bike paths/greenways in their bikeway analysis (Figure 9). Closing the small gaps in these existing routes that
directly connect to key destinations will be a more economical (over $7 million less expensive) and quicker way to
accomplish the mode shift goals of the ATP.
Another area that will strengthen the plan is to include trips that start/stop in SLO and extend beyond the city. The
traffic analysis specifically excluded trips to/from the Avila Ranch development, the Octagon Barn, and all workers
commuting from outside the city (page 30 states workers commute at a rate of 2.5:1). The City is not an island, but
part of a regional bicycle transportation network with gaps that must be connected for commuters and recreational
bicyclists.
SLO’s busiest transportation corridor is north/south along South Higuera/Highway 101. A bike path is already built on
this corridor from Prado to Los Osos Valley Road (LOVR) and a trailhead for this path opened in September 2019 at the
Octagon Barn. The only missing gap is a connection between the two. The 0.19-mile Bob Jones Trail Octagon Barn
Connection project is an approved city project with environmental work completed that will close this gap.
When using an informed traffic analysis, the most direct, pleasant and economical way to support a regional mode shift
along this corridor is the 0.19-mile bike path connection. This will allow most cyclists traveling to/from the south to
avoid the LOVR/Higuera intersection (one of the busiest intersections in the city) and cut the corner to connect to the
existing bike path, which has direct connection to the partially built Prado Road east/west bike path. It would also be a
more direct route to connect to proposed cycle tracks on LOVR.
South of LOVR on Higuera, the plan’s proposed cycle track will be a dead-end at the city limit and cyclists will not be
protected until the bike path starts again at the Octagon Barn. We, as Friends of the Bob Jones Trail, ask that the City-
and-County approved 0.19-mile bike path connection that closes this gap be placed in Tier 1. Leaving out this joint
regional project may jeopardize funding that the County is currently seeking for the 4.5-mile connection between the
Octagon Barn and Bob Jones Trail staging area on Ontario Road. Including this project will increase safety and inspire a
transformation mode shift on this corridor.
Thanks,
Friends of the Bob Jones Trail
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