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Home My WebLink About9/4/2018 Item 15, SKlisch Christian, Kevin From:Steve Klisch < > Sent:Thursday, August To:E-mail Council Website Subject:Support for Protected Bikelanes - Anholm Bikeway Plan Dear Mayor Harmon and City Council Members Christianson, Gomez, Pease, and Rivoire, In a timeless children’s book, the Lorax once said, “I speak for the trees.” Today, I speak for the kids as I request that you include protected bike lanes in the Anholm Bikeway Plan. For decades, my parent’s generation, and even my generation, has mostly ignored two dire threats to our kids’ and future generations: climate change and population growth. It is time for our community to join a growing global movement toward urgent action on climate change. In 2015, the United Nations adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals. One goal is to “take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”. The UN states “climate change is now affecting every country on every continent. It is … costing people, communities and countries dearly today and even more tomorrow. The poorest and most vulnerable people are being affected the most.” However, I continue to hear selfish statements in our dialogue, for example “protect my parking spaces” (which are taxpayer funded public spaces that city staff has shown are substantially underutilized). The sacrifices we are discussing are negligible compared to the pain and suffering already being experienced by the poorest and most vulnerable people, and by the families of SLO cyclists and pedestrians who have been killed by car drivers. We are leaving behind a mess, a legacy focused on selfishness, that our kids and future generations are going to have to solve if we, as a species, are to survive. Let’s give our kids a fighting chance! How can we do that tonight? By supporting protected bike lanes. Of the options being considered, protected bike lanes will increase biking the most. This is not simply my belief; it is a conclusion that has been consistently supported with scientific data. It is the option that reflects urgent action. Why are protected bike lanes so effective? Because without them, many people are too scared to ride their bikes. I’ve done some pretty scary things in my life. I’ve climbed big walls in Yosemite and Zion while sleeping (or trying to sleep) on tiny ledges or even a portable ledge clipped into the rock thousands of feet in the air. I’ve skied across the High Sierra and survived 2 blizzards (once being confined to a tent for 36 hours). And I’ve done some scary things with my kids; for example, my wife and I are at an 11,000-foot basecamp in the High 1 Sierra and preparing to climb a 14,000-foot peak with our kids (that is why the 4 of us will not be speaking at the meeting). But those things are not too scary, because we are experienced, we are cautious, and, most of all, we feel in control. But you know what scares me more than all the crazy stuff I’ve done? Riding bikes with my kids through the Anholm corridor and other city streets. Why is that so scary? Because I do not feel in control as I am at the mercy of car drivers. According to NHTSA, in the US the number of bicyclists killed by car drivers rose 12% from 2014-2015: 818 cyclists killed and another 45,000 cyclists injured. In 2016, distracted, drunk, and speeding drivers killed over 24,000 people. And such deaths have occurred in SLO, including one at an intersection with the Anholm Bikeway Plan Route. Some people say that they rode their bikes decades ago and felt safe; but the risks are greater now, drivers have cell phones, there are more relatively inexperienced drivers on the north side of town, and more of us are scared. Many of us know the risks and have the skills to bike safely yet we are regularly threatened by car drivers. I am not alone in being scared and being threatened by car drivers, and I think that will become evident as you receive community input on this matter. There has been talk about “protecting neighborhoods.” I understand that concern, but I believe that it needs to be put into the global climate change context. Scientists, and the UN, assert that many neighborhoods have already been truly destroyed by climate change. Our carbon emissions in SLO affect neighborhoods around the world. So, I respectfully ask you to take urgent action. Include protected bike lanes in the Anholm Bikeway Plan. Do it for our kids and do it for future generations. Heed the call of the Once-ler, who so eloquently stated, “UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” Thank you for listening, Steve Klisch 2 P.S. I am an 18-year resident of SLO and I live on the north side of Foothill with my wife and two children. We are daily bike commuters; my wife bike commutes through the Anholm corridor. 3