Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/27/1989, 2 - ^' ...c'TING AGENDA G /2-Sl ITPM Steve Eabry 1786 Oceanaire ` San Luis .Obispo, CA 93401 12 June 1989 TO: S City Council The large number of SLO residents who commute, as I do, by bicycle salute your renewed interest in this form of .l transportation. I come in by bike, fromthe Laguna Lake area to the County Government Center as well as using a bike for miscellaneous transportation around town. I have written and spoken in the past about the lack of support, from your level, for the bike as a means of transportation in our City. I am happy to see a renewed interest, discussion, and consideration of this topic. It is fine to talk about studies, plans, bike lanes, parking considerations, money, etc. However, it is important to recognize that the most important action necessary to increase bike use is a change in attitude at your level and instilling that attitude throughout the city administration. Progress toward inviting a switch to the use of bikes from autos cannot be measured in miles of bike lanes, a revised bike element, or dollars shifted from roads to bike lanes. It can only be measured in the shift from auto trips to bike trips and this has to start with a clear policy direction from the City Council. Right now there is a feeling and partial reality that SLO streets are not safe for bikes. There hasn't been any direction from above to recognize the bike as a valid part of the SLO transportation scene. Invariably, when I'm run off the road, it is a city bus or city or county vehicle. Evidence of this lack of policy direction include the fact that bike marks for demand lights are routinely ignored (even when reported) when signing roads;unsafe chuck holes go unfilled (even after being reported) ; there are unsafe storm drain grates; and some bike lanes end in mid-block in unsafe situations. Much of this is attitude - staff RECEIVED V JUN CITY CLERK SAN Lii;3 0816PO,CA -2- . attitude .that can be modified at little or no cost, if the City Council articulates a strong policy promoting bikes. I feel that it is not appropriate to hav4 marked bike lanes on city streets, particularly where it is not possible for all streets to have marked lanes. There is already confusion between bikes and autos. To establish 2 different situations is not a good policy. Bike/auto protocol has a long standing, it works. However it is often violated in SLO by driver and biker equally. The necessary thing is to instill this attitude in riders and drivers, and then enforce it. A pro-biking attitude at your level is the necessary first step to infuse all city departments with the importance of doing their jobs with the recognition that bikes are acceptable and appropriate in the City. This is essentially cost free and will give the signal that it is safe to bike in SLO. Habits will change. If money comer available or can be diverted that is good too, but it is not necessary. The first efforts and any money should be directed to education and enforcement. Again, it's good to see this discussion at the Council level. The benefits of increasing bicycle use in the City are many, including air pollution and parking tension reduction, convenience, etc. It can work, and you have initiated the change. Thanks,. cc: Jim Merkel Wayne Peterson Terry Sanville Chief Gardiner Evelyn Delany Ron DeCarli MEETING AGENDA DATE �� ITEM # Sierra Club ATTF 392 Pismo Street <Denotes action by Lead Pelson San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 Respond by: xCouncll June 8, 1989 ICAO D City Atty. 9�Cler4-orig. yB.SrarLE 2 16 a. Ros�Ere 6 Mayor Ron Dunin RECEIVED FI - Councilperson Peg Pinard Councilperson Penny Rappa JUN ' `Z 19�') Counciperson J. Reiss Councilperson Allan Settle City of San Luis Obispo CITY CLERK City Hall SAN LU!S OBISPO,CA 990 Palm Street San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 RE: Transportation Items of the Capital Improvements Budget Dear Ladies and Gentlemen: I represent the Alternative. Transportation Task Force of the Sierra Club. I am writing to you in accordance with my agreement with Mayor Dunin of Monday, June 5, 1989. The Sierra Club - ATTF wishes to have some input into the currently pending capital improvement budget hearings on those items relating to transportation. I appeared at the hearing held on Monday, June 5 , 1989 . However, because it was not certain that the transportation items would be heard that day and the hearing was behind schedule, Mayor Dunin and myself agreed that written input might be more constructive than an oral presentation that day. Hopefully, the council members will have a chance to review this matter before making a final determination on the transportation items. Furthermore, we would still like the opportunity to address the full council at the budget hearing presently set for Monday, June 12 , 1989 at 4:30 p.m. . As a way of introduction, the Sierra Club - ATTF is an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life in the city and county of San Luis Obispo through the vehicle of transportation. Some of you. may remember Mr. James Merkel, who appeared at a prior budget hearing. The immediate and pressing goal of the Sierra Club - ATTF is to have some constructive input and influence on the pending capital improvement budget with respect to transportation. Furthermore, the organization intends to attempt to have some input into the circulation element of the general plan, which I understand is in the midst of updating. June 8, 1989 Page Two The basic position of the Sierra Club - ATTF with respect to the capital improvement budget, is that the budget is severely skewed in favor of the private automobile to the neglect of alternatives such as rapid transit, the bicycle and pedestrians. It is imperative that funds be diverted away from streets and paving, street widenings, intersection improvements, and other projects directed solely to the benefit of the private automobile, and toward alternative transportation. It is our understanding that San Luis Obispo presently exceeds state air pollution levels. In fact, Mr. Larry Allen, Senior Air Quality Specialist, Air Pollution Control District, stated in 'the Telegram Tribune on May 17, 1989, "We' ll want to do anything to get people out of those cars and into alternative forms of transportation, like busses. " Furthermore, it is apparent that the city will continue to grow, at least in the immediate future. Air pollution levels will only be exacerbated by the continued heavy reliance upon the private automobile as the primary means of transportation. . It is our position that the quality of life in San Luis Obispo will be greatly enhanced if the continued policy of widening and building more roads, which coincidentally only facilitates more air pollution problems, more development, more destruction of habitat, and the use of more nonrenewable resources, is rethought and amended so that our focus is on alternative transportation. The specific item which we wish to address at this time is page D-31 of the 1989-91 Financial Plan Capital Improvement Plan Request. That item allocates $20, 000.00 per fiscal year for bikeway improvements. At this point we will request that the City devote at least $400, 000. 00 per year to "bikeway improvements". With respect to the source of these funds, we submit that they should be made available through the items contained in pages D-29 through D-42. For example the entire $400, 000.00 annual budget could be diverted from the item contained on page D-29. Alternatively, $250,000.00 could be available if the item contained on page D-30 (Downtown resurfacing) were eliminated. The sole purpose of that item seems to be to improve the "appearance and ride quality of downtown streets" . We should trade a smooth ride for healthy lungs. As a further source of funds, the item contained on page D-32 seems to be tied to private development. In fact the project description contains the statement "as development and improvement of adjacent property occurs" . Those items could potentially be extracted from private developers as a condition for development. Further the sum of $800, 000.00 could be made available for . alternative transportation if the Prado Road bridge widening project June 8, 1989 Page Three (see page D-34) were eliminated. According to the 1988 phase one circulation study that particular bridge now handles 4,070 vehicles per day. According to Ron Di Carli, a two lane road can handle 2800 vehicles per hour of "free flowing traffic". Therefore, there appears to be no apparent need for ' re-construction of this bridge at this time. Once again if development of adjacent property requires the widening, then possibly that should be a condition of the development. These proposals most likely appear quite extreme. However, a commitment to alternative transportation has long term benefits which will greatly exceed the benefits from any number of years of street re-construction and resurfacing. It is time that our community changed its attitude toward public transportation. Ultimately this is an issue of values and moral responsibility. As I am sure you would agree, the City Council, as elected officials, has a heightened duty to ensure that our community as a collective unit is acting morally. How many of us are willing to take direct responsibility for a portion of the Exxon-Valdez oil spill? How many who have not addressed that issue made even one needless trip in his or her automobile this week? We are asking the City Council to look beyond the borders of our city and to consider not only future inhabitants of our city, but the impact of our actions on a county, state, national or global scale. We should learn from our brethren to the South and not create for our citizens a life lived primarily on the freeways breathing unhealthy air. The late Edward Abbey upon returning to Tuscon, Arizona after having lived in Moab, Utah for some years was appalled at the sprawling, apparently uncontrolled growth of his "home town". The author questioned the common assumption that growth equals progress and asked "How big is big enough?" Is the widening of roads and the building of new roads, in order to facilitate more automobiles which in turn will facilitate more growth, which will facilitate further decline of our air and water quality, progress? The attitude of our local government toward alternative transportation must change. In a resent conversation with Wayne Petersen, City Engineer, he stated that one reason bikeways were not a bigger element in the local transportation plan was that our citizens would not use bikeways. It was his position that bike ways would be used by only those persons who were unable to obtain an automobile, or in other words the poor and students. We submit that in fact the opposite is true. If the city provides bikeways and alternative transportation, and makes those options i s June 8, 1989 Page Four desirable, then citizens will use those alternatives. However, if the city provides only wider, smoother, faster and more highways, then our citizens will use-the private automobile. The above conclusion is borne out in fact in the cities of Davis, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Christchurch where bicycles have become a major mode of transportation. In an evaluation contained in the City of Davis bicycle programs, the author concluded that "an. effective bicycle transportation system reduces the amount of automobile use in Davis. It was estimated that in good weather the use of bicycles saves on automobile trip per day for every two households in the city. In practical terms this means something like 7, 000 single automobile journeys per day that would be undertaken by car if bicycles were not available. " In 1974, approximately 10 years after the Davis bicycle program got off the ground, the City had a total of 32,000 people and 27, 000 bicycles. A major factor in the success of the City of Davis could be its strong education policy. The Davis Police Department has six programs which total 1, 000 hours per year in school classes, which amounts to approximately three to four visits per grade per year, addressing bicycle education, safety and enforcement programs. The following quote from the City of Davis publication on bicycle programs shows how the attitude of city officials can greatly influence the success or failure of any .bicycle transportation plan: "At first the suggestion (referring to bikeways) was rejected by the City Council; it was considered to be visionary, impractical, and potentially dangerous and its proponents were regarded as cranks. Letters to the editor proclaim that the day of the horse had passed and the day of the bicycle was passing. It was time to build more and larger parking lots and shopping centers. Citizens were urged to welcome the 20th century to their city and forget the gay 90's and all its trappings. " However, the attitude of the Davis City Council swung in favor of committing substantial resources to developing bicycles as an alternative transportation mode. The following quote from the same City of Davis bicycle program materials indicates their success: "It is important to realize that the bicycles are not merely owned, stored or used for recreational purposes; they are an important part of the transportation system. On one heavily trafficked street, traffic counts during the summer (with few university students in town) show that bicycles represented 40% of all traffic. During the rush June 8, 1989 Page Five hour, 90% of all riders are adults the use of bicycles has meant that there are no parking meters in the city and the traffic situation at rush hours is tolerable. The bicycle has helped preserve the central city core as a viable shopping district, since parking is not a serious obstacle to shopping downtown, the university and high schools have been able to set aside less space for parking lots than they would ordinarily. The acceptance of the bicycle as a viable means of transportation by virtually all segments of the community provides the unique opportunity to learn the structural ' and social requirements of safe, efficient, and pleasurable bike riding. " However, in order to make the bicycle an attractive alternative transportation mode, the city must commit substantial resources to developing a special network of bike paths. The following excerpts from the City of Davis program show the drastic effects that such a network has upon the use of the bicycle: "The potential of bicycle transportation cannot be realized without the necessary envir :amental support system. Just as one cannot have a railroad without tracks, or bus system without highways, so one needs special facilities and regulations for bicycle traffic. This means planning which must rest on firm knowledge of the special requirements of the bicycle. One simply does not design highways for automobiles and sidewalks for pedestrians, leaving bicyclists squeezed in between moving automobiles, parked cars and pedestrians . . . It is the writer's feelings, supported by our survey results, that the bicycle path network in the city is an important factor in this heavy use of the bicycle. At Santa Barbara, where another campus of the University is located on flat terrain, one finds much less frequent use of the bicycle than at Davis. . . As a follow up a similar survey was undertaken at Woodland, California, a nearby city of approximately the same size as Davis but with a much smaller number, of bicyclists. The. city officials interviewed said that Woodland did not have a significant bicycle problem and special paths were therefore unnecessary. In Woodland the use of bicycles (with identical terrain and climate as Davis) was almost exclusively restricted to children. . . It is clear that the bicycle is viewed as a minor and incidental June 8, 1989 Page Six part of the traffic situation in Woodland -- something to be used by children getting to and from school. " To recap, the Sierra Club - ATTF has three immediate goals: 1. To establish an integrated bicycle system, providing safe access to popular destinations within the City of San Luis Obispo. 2. To make low automobile traffic roads with few impediments, available and convenient to bicyclists. 3 . To provide a convenient alternative mode of transportation to relieve the traffic congestion, parking, and pollution problems associated with heavy automobile use. Included with this letter is a map of the City of San Luis Obispo which includes our proposed bikeway . system. A definition of class I and class II bikeways can be found on page six of the 1985 San Luis Obispo Bicycle Facilities Plan, which coincidentally is after four years not fully implemented. The enclosed plan is color-coded and should be basically self- explanatory. The basic approach is to provide access to all the major destination areas in the City. Probably the two most major and noteworthy proposals are the class I (orange) bike ways proposed. One leads from Cal Poly along the railroad right-of-way out to Tank Farm Road. The other major class I proposal is from the downtown area along the freeway right-of-way out to Laguna Lake and onto Foothill Boulevard. Will it be possible on; Monday, June 12, 1989, for either myself or someone from the organization to address questions regarding the enclosed plan and make a brief presentation thereof? Very truly yours, ^i1 (--J! � EDWIN J. RAMBUSRI EJR:ks