HomeMy WebLinkAbout9/4/2018 Item 15, KlischS
From:Shannon >
Sent:Thursday, PM
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Anholm Bikeway Plan - agenda item
Dear Mayor Harmon and City Council Members,
It is in the collection of many small decisions that our outcomes and impacts are determined. Choosing to walk or ride a
bike, instead of taking a car, may seem like a small decision. But it is the sum of all of those decisions to get in a car that
incrementally add up to congested road ways, air that is a little less clean, carbon emissions that lead to greenhouse
gases that lead to global warming. In that decision is also people choosing to move less, leading to more sedentary
lifestyles, leading to a rise in obesity, diabetes and chronic disease and sky rocketing health care costs. All of these
conditions start with small decisions.
In community health, we say that "you have to make the healthy choice, the easy choice." This means that, at a
population level, if there is something you want people to do, you have to make it more attractive and more convenient
than all other competing options. Yes, educating people about the impacts of their decisions and choices is important.
But if you really want to see broad societal change, you also have to look at the environments, the policies, the systems
in which people live and make those small decisions. You have to work to make healthy decisions 1) possible and 2)
easy.
I live less than 2 miles from downtown SLO. Biking with my family to downtown should not be a difficult decision. Right
now, as I imagine my route, I have to plan very carefully. I consider how congested the surface streets will be based on
the time of day and whether students or tourists are in town. I prepare my kids and tell them to pay attention: don't
swerve! don't go too fast or too slow! signal before you turn, pull off to the side if you need to tell me something. Too
many times we have come too close to a collision. The calculus becomes too difficult, the drive becomes the easy and
peaceful choice and I make that small decision.
I bike the Anholm corridor almost everyday on my way to work. I am a confident rider. I am regularly passed within 2
feet. Recently a driver even pulled up next to me to yell at me to "use the bike lane!" on Chorro (there is no bike lane).
The driver had just passed at least one sign telling him "bikes may use full lane" and two green sharrows. The signs and
sharrows are educational interventions and they are important, but this driver was not interested in being educated
about my rights to use the roadway. He just wanted me to use the bike lane. Frankly, I wanted to use it too.
So now it is your turn to make one small decision, one that will impact our community in meaningful and important
ways. One that will impact my decision to bike or drive downtown for the next decade or more. I ask you to do
everything you can to make the healthy choice, the easy choice. To consider our most vulnerable populations when
thinking about how we use our public spaces, how we take care of our air and our earth. I urge you to consider the
importance of this seemingly small decision and support separated bike lanes and connected sidewalks in all areas of the
city and, particularly, the Anholm Bikeway plan.
Thank you for your consideration,
Shannon Klisch
SLO resident
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