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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2/6/2018 Item 12, Rippens From:Marty Rippens <rippens@gmail.com> Sent:Tuesday, February To:E-mail Council Website Subject:Adopt the Preferred Alternative (Protected Bike Lanes) for the Anholm Bikeway Project Dear Mayor Harmon and City Council Members, I am writing to ask you to adopt the Preferred Alternative (Protected Bike Lanes) for the Anholm Bikeway Project at tomorrow's city council meeting. I speak not only for myself but also on behalf of my wife and three children, who would use protected bike lanes through the Anholm neighborhood regularly. We have long dreamed of this type of kid-friendly bicycle infrastructure ever since we moved to the north side of the city a decade ago. More than just dreaming of these changes, over the years we––along with many other families with school-age children––have expended much time and energy working to move our city in this direction. Carving out precious time where we can, we have stayed up late writing letters and emails (like this one) after the kids are finally tucked in. We have shown up to council meetings, sometimes dragging our children along despite the late hour to share with them the democratic process in action. We have engaged with city staff and fellow residents throughout the planning process. We have spoken up to ensure the best interests of our children were not overlooked through multiple budget cycles. We have organized with other parents of students at Pacheco and Bishop's Peak schools around Safe Routes To School issues, advocating on behalf of our kids so they can travel the streets of their home town safely and confidently by foot and by bike. I ask that you please keep all these previous efforts in mind when it comes time to cast your vote for the Preferred Alternative. Please do not allow a vocal minority to derail the steady, committed work done by so many for so long. Please do not allow an angry few and their noisy resistance to change obscure the sentiments of a hopeful majority who view that same change as the necessary way forward toward a more sustainable, convivial future for our city. The Preferred Alternative (Protected Bike Lanes) truly is the way forward if the city is serious about supporting with actual built infrastructure the programs and policies that it has outlined on paper over and over again. These include the City’s Multimodal Transportation Major City Goal, the General Plan objective to achieve 20 percent citywide bicycle share, the Climate Action Plan and the Vision Zero initiative to eliminate traffic-related deaths and severe injuries for all the city’s road users by 2030. While more sharrows are great, they are not enough to convince the more vulnerable and less-confident in our society to adopt bicycling as a sustainable transportation alternative to driving. The fact of the matter is that only protected bike lanes will help the city achieve its oft-stated goals. You now have the opportunity to make that happen. Sincerely, Marty Rippens San Luis Obispo On Tue, Aug 15, 2017 at 8:39 AM, Marty Rippens <rippens@gmail.com> wrote: Dear Mayor Harmon and City Council Members, 1 On August 15, you will be asked to consider plans for a Broad Street Bike Blvd. As a resident who lives north of Foothill and regularly bikes to work downtown, I urge you to move forward with plans for the Broad Street Bicycle Blvd., specifically Option 1, which makes the most "pedal-sense;" it is how I and many other bicyclists already navigate through the Anholm district and its challenging hills. More importantly, as the father of three elementary school children who bike and walk to school, I urge you to consider how important the Broad St. Bike Blvd. is in relation to other promised SRTS improvements, including a much-needed protected crossing at Ferrini/Foothill. At the council meeting, you will no doubt be faced with a vocal minority resistant to these changes. While their concerns may be valid, I respectfully remind you that hundreds of Pacheco and Bishop's Peak families have been pushing for the Bike Blvd. and related SRTS improvements for many, many years. On behalf of my children, their classmates, and all future students of Pacheco and Bishop's Peak who will benefit from safer routes to school, I urge you to do what is best for our city as a whole and move these projects to completion as soon as possible. Sincerely, Marty Rippens San Luis Obispo 2