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HomeMy WebLinkAbout8/15/2017 Item 16, Teifel (2) Christian, Kevin From:John Teifel <johnteifel@gmail.com> Sent:Tuesday, August To:Harmon, Heidi; Gomez, Aaron; E-mail Council Website Subject:Re: Broad Street Bike Blvd - New Idea Attachments:Chorro Broad Traffic Deterrent.docx Hi, Thank you for your responses. Here is my plan attached. I will bring a print out to the meeting. Best, John On Tue, Aug 15, 2017 at 8:06 AM, Harmon, Heidi <hharmon@slocity.org> wrote: Thank you for your note about the Broad St Bike Corridor. This is a tough one as so many folks are desperate for a safer way to get across town. And so many others don't want this in their neighborhood. I was considering Lincoln as an alternative but have learned that this route will not get people out of their cars and on to bikes like a route on Chorro will. I am really looking forward to hearing from the community tonight on this. Thanks for being part of the conversation, Mayor Harmon From: John Teifel <johnteifel@gmail.com> Sent: Monday, August 14, 2017 3:55:57 PM To: E-mail Council Website Subject: Fwd: Broad Street Bike Blvd - New Idea Dear City Council Members, I plan to attend the City Council meeting tomorrow night. I have devised a plan that would divert traffic off of Chorro and Broad Street onto Santa Rosa Street, making it safer for bicyclists and more pleasant for residents. The response I received from Jennifer, the traffic engineer, concerned me. It appears that Chorro and Broad are expected to bear a certain amount of through traffic, as to not overload Santa Rosa and the Santa Rosa freeway entrances. Also, it appears that Chorro is a main emergency vehicle route. This is concerning, considering that Chorro is 100% residential, north of US101. It seems that any hopes to reduce traffic on Chorro street will be rejected, because of these reasons. I think these two points will be important to bring up during the City Council meeting tomorrow night. Thank you, 1 John ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Teifel <johnteifel@gmail.com> Date: Mon, Aug 14, 2017 at 3:47 PM Subject: Re: Broad Street Bike Blvd - New Idea To: "Rice, Jennifer" <jrice@slocity.org> Cc: "Schwartz, Luke" <LSchwartz@slocity.org> Hi Jennifer, Thank you for your reply. I will bring it up with City Council tomorrow night. If I am understanding correctly, here are my two takeaways. 1) Chorro and Broad are expected to take on the load of a significant amount of through traffic, so that Santa Rosa street and those freeway entrances are not overloaded. Therefore, any alternative that reduces vehicle traffic on Chorro and Broad by diverting it to Santa Rosa will not be accepted. 2) The fire department and emergency services use Chorro as a response route. If the diversion could still allow emergency vehicles to cut through, would it be considered? Also, have they studied how many emergency calls per day require that route and the difference in response time if they used Santa Rosa? Thank you, John On Mon, Aug 14, 2017 at 1:17 PM, Rice, Jennifer <jrice@slocity.org> wrote: Hello John, Thank you for taking the time to put a lot of thought into this. Overall, you are absolutely right that there are measures that could be taken to divert vehicles off of both Broad and Chorro Streets, which would lead to ideal conditions for a bicycle boulevard on either of those streets and make the neighborhood a very comfortable place. This is something I have heard from others throughout this project as well as during the initial meetings. While Santa Rosa is a major arterial and is expected to carry a large amount of vehicles, diverting this amount of traffic from Chorro and Broad Street would increase volumes on Santa Rosa by about 20%. Unfortunately, this alternative has similar obstacles as closing the on-off ramps at Broad Street—ultimately, the ramps at Santa Rosa do not have the capacity for that amount of volume and need to be reconstructed prior to shifting traffic. 2 The configuration of diverters you propose would not allow fire/emergency access to Broad or Chorro south of Meinecke/Murray without using Santa Rosa. This segment of Chorro Street is a primary response route. Fire and emergency services have been a key partner in developing the plans so that their access can be maintained. I agree though that there may be opportunities to incorporate additional elements that would encourage some shift of drivers to Santa Rosa. I encourage you to share your plans with the City Council. Others within the neighborhood have done similar things—developed ideas that they see as potential. All of this will be important for Council to see and review. By no means are the 3 Alternatives perfect in and of themselves. I’m sure you are aware of the significant tradeoffs to each one. I wouldn’t be surprised if the ultimate plan has a combination of some of these elements along with others presented by the public. Sincerely, Jennifer Rice Transportation Planner/Engineer Public Works Transportation Operations 919 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-3218 E jrice@slocity.org T 805.781.7058 slocity.org From: John Teifel \[mailto:johnteifel@gmail.com\] Sent: Monday, August 14, 2017 12:24 AM To: Rice, Jennifer <jrice@slocity.org>; Schwartz, Luke <LSchwartz@slocity.org> Subject: Broad Street Bike Blvd - New Idea Hi Jennifer and Luke, 3 I missed the initial meetings when plans and options were devised, but I really think you should consider this option. I will be at the City Council meeting on Tuesday and hope to discuss this then. I recently married and moved into a house on Chorro St. near Foothill Blvd. There is constant vehicle traffic in front of our house, which takes away peace and quiet that anyone would want in their home. I drive to downtown and other places in SLO, and I also ride my bike along Chorro St. to downtown. It seems that the biggest deterrent to riding bikes on Chorro St. is the volume of traffic. Although I haven’t studied the numbers in detail, based on the traffic counts, it is clear that a high volume of cars travel from downtown SLO to Foothill Blvd via Chorro St: http://www.slocity.org/government/department-directory/public-works/programs-and- services/transportation-planning-and-engineering/traffic-data The traffic volume also contributes to a lot of disturbance for residents. From what I understand from reading about the 3 Bike Blvd options, the maximum neighborhood traffic volume along Chorro St is already exceeded and will remain exceeded no matter which option is chosen. This is something that must be addressed both for bike safety and residential peace. I designed an alternative that would deflect vehicle traffic to use Santa Rosa Street to get to and from Downtown and US101. It is simple, low cost, and leaves residents with close to the same convenience that they have today. This reduced vehicle traffic will provide for safer bike riding along Chorro and Broad Street. No bike lanes or expensive, fancy freeway overpasses are needed. The premise of this approach is to make it less convenient for non-residents to use Chorro and Broad to connect from downtown and US101 to Foothill Blvd. If it is more convenient to go on Santa Rosa, people will start using that route rather than cutting though the neighborhood. Here are the only changes to the streets that need to be made: Chorro at Murray Create a diversion that prevents cars from going straight or turning left heading north or south along Chorro St. through Murray St. (Right Turn Only heading North/South along Chorro.) Cars heading East/West along Murray may go straight or Turn right. (No left turn) Bicycle and pedestrians may go any direction. This may be accomplished by connecting the center side walk that goes along Murray St. to stretch across Chorro, while leaving a wide enough gap in both directions for Bicycles to pass through. Broad at Meinecke Heading South along broad street, left turn only. Heading North along Broad St, Right turn only. Heading West along Meinecke, right turn only. Bicycles and pedestrians may go any direction. Meinecke at Benton Heading east along Meinecke, no right turn. Heading west along Meinecke, no left turn. Bicycles and pedestrians may go any direction. This is to prevent people from using Benton as a cut through street, because of the inconveniences added by the above 2 diversions. 4 What this does These simple changes make it slightly less convenient for cars to use Chorro and Broad St. to get to downtown. With these changes, it will make it more convenient for cars to use Santa Rosa St. Google Maps Results For simplicity sake, I will use the starting and ending points that best demonstrate how these changes affect driver choice of routes. Any other starting and ending points would simply be expansions of these routes and thus produce the same result. Chorro at Walnut to Chorro at Foothill Current State https://ibb.co/mpFa4v At 3 minutes, using Chorro St is the fastest route, so drivers choose it. Potential routes after changes are made https://ibb.co/mBrtra https://ibb.co/dynYra If the above changes are made, it will take drivers 5 minutes to use Chorro and Broad Street to get from Chorro at Walnut to Chorro at Foothill. Thus, it will be faster for them to take Santa Rosa St. (4 minutes). People tend to take the faster route, diverting traffic out of the Chorro/Broad NEIGHBORHOODS, onto the main road (Santa Rosa). I ran out of time, but still need to do a similar comparison for these other routes; however, I expect the result to be similar, based on the new traffic flow with the proposed changes. Chorro/Foothill to Chorro/Walnut Broad/Foothill to US 101S US 101S to Broad/Foothill Chorro/Foothill to US 101S US 101S to Chorro/Foothill Best, John Teifel johnteifel@gmail.com (925)451-8401 5 Chorro Broad Traffic Deterrent I recently married and moved into a house on Chorro St. near Foothill Blvd. There is constant vehicle traffic in front of our house, which takes away peace and quiet that anyone would want in their home. I drive to downtown and other places in SLO, and I also ride my bike along Chorro St. to downtown. It seems that the biggest deterrent to riding bikes on Chorro St. is the volume of traffic. Although I haven’t studied the numbers in detail, based on the traffic counts, it is a high volume of cars travel from downtown SLO to Foothill Blvd via Chorro St: http://www.slocity.org/government/department‐directory/public‐works/programs‐and‐ services/transportation‐planning‐and‐engineering/traffic‐data    The traffic volume also contributes to a lot of disturbance for residents. From what I understand from reading about the 3 Bike Blvd options, the maximum neighborhood traffic volume along Chorro St is already exceeded and will remain exceeded no matter which option is chosen. This is something that must be addressed both for bike safety and residential peace. I designed an alternative that would deflect vehicle traffic to use Santa Rosa Street to get to and from Downtown and US101. It is simple, low cost, and leaves residents with close to the same convenience that they have today. This reduced vehicle traffic will provide for safer bike riding along Chorro and Broad Street. No bike lanes or expensive, fancy freeway overpasses are needed. The premise of this approach is to make it less convenient for non-residents to use Chorro and Broad to connect from downtown and US101 to Foothill Blvd. If it is more convenient to go on Santa Rosa, people will start using that route rather than cutting though the neighborhood. Here are the only changes to the streets that need to be made: Chorro at Murray Create a diversion that prevents cars from going straight or turning eft heading north or south along Chorro St. through Murray St. (Right Turn Only heading North/South along Chorro.) Cars heading East/West along Murray may go straight or Turn right. (No left turn) Bicycle and pedestrians may go any direction. This may be accomplished by connecting the center side walk that goes along Murray St. to stretch across Chorro, while leaving a wide enough gap in both directions for Bicycles to pass through. Broad at Meinecke Heading South along broad street, left turn only. Heading North along Broad St, Right turn only. Heading West along Meinecke, right turn only. Bicycles and pedestrians may go any direction. Meinecke at Benton Heading east along Meinecke, no right turn. Heading west along Meinecke, no left turn. Bicycles and pedestrians may go any direction. This is to prevent people from using Benton as a cut through street, because of the inconveniences added by the above 2 diversions. What this does These simple changes make it slightly less convenient for cars to use Chorro and Broad St. to get to downtown. With these changes, it will make it more convenient for cars to use Santa Rosa St. Google Maps Results For simplicity sake, I will use the starting and ending points that best demonstrate how these changes affect driver choice of routes. Any other starting and ending points would simply be expansions of these routes and thus produce the same result. Chorro at Walnut to Chorro at Foothill Current State https://ibb.co/mpFa4v At 3 minutes, using Chorro St is the fastest route, so drivers choose it. Potential routes after changes are made involving Chorro and Broad https://ibb.co/mBrtra https://ibb.co/dynYra If the above changes are made, it will take drivers 5 minutes to use Chorro and Broad Street to get from Chorro at Walnut to Chorro at Foothill. Thus, it will be faster for them to take Santa Rosa St. (4 minutes). People tend to take the faster route, diverting traffic out of the Chorro/Broad NEIGHBORHOODS, onto the main road (Santa Rosa). I ran out of time, but still need to do a similar comparison for these other routes; however, I expect the result to be similar, based on the new traffic flow with the proposed changes. Chorro/Foothill to Chorro/Walnut Broad/Foothill to US 101S US 101S to Broad/Foothill Chorro/Foothill to US 101S US 101S to Chorro/Foothill