HomeMy WebLinkAbout4/18/2023 Item 6a, Johnson
Schwartz, Luke
Sent:Monday, April 17, 2023 5:51 PM
To:susiemag.21@gmail.com
Cc:
Subject:RE: Proposed On-Street Parking Removal on Santa Barbara Ave
Hello Susie and Magnia Family,
Thank you for reaching out about the proposed changes to Santa Barbara Avenue considered as part of the
2023 Arterials Paving project (Item 6a on the 4/18/23 City Council Agenda).
We appreciate your feedback and understand your interest in the project and concerns with maintaining
access for emergency services, deliveries, and trash collection along Santa Barbara Avenue. I’ve provided
some information on each of these specific concerns below and have cc’d the City Clerk to ensure that your
original email below and this response are included in the public agenda correspondence ahead of tomorrow’s
City Council meeting.
Q: Will the changes to Santa Barbara Avenue, which include removal of 11 on-street parking stalls and
addition of protected bike lanes, impact emergency vehicle access? How will vehicles pull over to let
emergency vehicles through?
A: Any time the City Public Works Department is considering street changes, designs are reviewed with the
City Fire Department to ensure that there will be no significant impacts to emergency vehicle access or
response times. For this particular street, emergency vehicles will proceed much like they do currently when
the existing on-street parking spaces are occupied with parked vehicles—by using the continuous center turn
lane to bypass other vehicles in the roadway. In addition, the raised bikeway separation will be pulled back at
least 10’ on either end of driveways, which will retain area for 1-2 cars to pull to the side of the road at each
driveway. The proposed street designs are consistent with the Fire Code and are not anticipated to negatively
affect emergency response.
Q: How will commercial deliveries and trash collection work with the new street design?
A: As mentioned above, the raised bikeway separation will terminate at least 10’ on either side of each
driveway. This will provide a 3’ wide by 10’ long buffer area on the side of each driveway for placement of
waste bins. This strategy has been approved by SLO Garbage and has worked successfully with recent
protected bikeway installations on Marsh and Higuera Streets. I’ve provided an image below showing this.
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Delivery vehicles will serve this street as they have done for properties on the east side or southern half of
Santa Barbara Avenue where no parking currently exists – they may park either in a driveway, at a nearby
side-street or off-street parking lot to load/unload goods. In my observations traveling this corridor daily, often
large delivery trucks will simply put their hazards on and load/unload in the traffic lane if the existing parking
lane is occupied, allowing other vehicles to pass them carefully in the center turn lane. Because of the parking
restrictions and long driveway areas, drivers will have better visibility to enter and exit driveways than today,
but I understand these changes may not be desirable for everyone and may take some getting used to.
Q: Why is the project needed? The current bike lane appears to be sufficient and I don’t recall a
bicyclist being hit or injured on Santa Barbara?
A: There have been 4 collisions involving cyclists on Santa Barbara between Upham and Broad Street in the
most recent 10-year period (2012-2022), three of which resulted in moderate injuries and one that resulted in
severe injuries to the cyclist. In addition, 4 cyclists have been killed in vehicle collisions in SLO within the past
3 years alone, with each of these incidents occurring on high-traffic arterial streets with unprotected bike lanes,
like Santa Barbara. Fortunately, no deaths have occurred on Santa Barbara Avenue, but we have a good
understanding of the types of street designs that increase probability of these events and are proactively
looking to install safety improvements, such as protected bike lanes, to prevent these incidents from happening
in the future. Per nationwide studies, addition of protected bike lanes can cut collision rates for bicycles by 50%
on average and often reduce collisions for pedestrians and drivers as well.
Lastly, thank you for the positive comment on the proposed pedestrian crossing at Santa Barbara & High
Street. We have received several affirming comments on this crossing, and I am glad that you are supportive
of this element in your neighborhood.
If you have any questions or would like to talk more, please feel free to reach out to me via phone or email. If
you are interested, I’d also welcome you to attend the City Council meeting tomorrow evening to provide
comments in-person to staff and City Council. We value comments from the public, and your input will be
considered as the Council considers this project. Details on meeting time, location, and how to submit public
comment to the Council in-person or by email/mail/voicemail ahead of the meeting are provided here.
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Best,
Luke Schwartz, PE
Transportation Manager
Public Works
Transportation Planning/Engineering
919 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-3218
E LSchwartz@slocity.org
T 805.781.7190
slocity.org
From: Susie Johnson <
Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2023 10:00 PM
To: Caldera, Ryan <rcaldera@slocity.org>
Subject: Re: Proposed On-Street Parking Removal on Santa Barbara Ave
This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond.
We want to express our concerns with the above mentioned project.
We disagree with this project being needed. The current bike lane appears to be sufficient. It is not used that often. I
don't recall a bicyclist being injured or struck in
this area.
Santa Barbara Ave is constantly used as a thoroughfare by emergency vehicles, the SLO Fire Dept, SLO Ambulance and
SLO PD. Numerous times throughout the day and night. It is constantly busy with automobiles which have to pull over
to the sides of the street (parking spaces) to allow the emergency vehicles to proceed through. We hear sirens and see
their lights approx. 5 to 8 times a day. Where could the automobiles move over to, if you remove the parking and add a
concrete median? Why would you want to make the street any narrower? Causing a bigger peril.
Our family has lived in our home over 50 years. My mother is elderly, she gets her meals delivered daily and they park
in front of our house.
With your proposal, where would emergency vehicles be able to park, if we have an emergency? Where are the USPS
supposed to park to deliver our mail? UPS and FedEx too? Where would the weekly garbage containers be placed on
the street?
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We feel this project wasn't fully researched. The pedestrian crossing is needed at High; but we do not feel that the
change to the bike lane and removing the parking is beneficial to our city's needs. As indicated, the bike lane isn't
frequently used. The concern should be directed toward the automobile traffic on the street. Please submit this letter
on our behalf to the City Council at the April 18th meeting.
Thank you and the City Council for your consideration.
The Magnia Family
1929 Santa Barbara Ave.
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