Gathering Community Support – Eagle Rock Takes Back the Boulevard

Take Back the Boulevard is an initiative created by residents to improve the quality of life in Eagle Rock through equalizing the mode share on Colorado Boulevard. In Eagle Rock, Colorado Boulevard is the main thoroughfare, a 6 lane roadway connecting major highways and freeways. A more equitable mode share on Colorado Boulevard will facilitate more transportation options and economic opportunities. On the Boulevard, 83% of the distance between one store front to another – 120 feet – is dedicated to vehicular traffic only. Of the 120 feet of public space, including sidewalks and roads, pedestrians and bicyclists are confined to 20 feet of area.

One More Push Needed for regional SRTS funding and complete streets in the Bay Area!

photo by sfbike

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) released a new revision of the One Bay Area Grant proposal. Thanks to the advocacy of many of us, the new proposal has made significant changes to improve active transportation.

Regional Safe Routes to School funding was increased to $20 million over four years, after having been threatened with massive cuts. That’s a big win for our children!

Also, counties and cities will be required to adopt complete streets resolutions in order to receive One Bay Area Grant funding. This will go a long way to ensuring the Bay Area is friendly to bicyclists and pedestrians.

TAKE ACTION: We need one more push to cement these gains!

Register now for the 2012 Complete Streets Conference in Los Angeles!

The second UCLA Complete Streets conference will present speakers from academia and practice to share observations and findings about recent accomplishments and explore new research and complete streets implementation examples.  As the support behind the complete streets movement continues to evolve, exemplary on-the-ground projects are steadily growing in strength and in numbers.  What are recent accomplishments that have made appearances on the horizon of this movement, how have these efforts fared in their objectives to redefine and repurpose streets as public spaces?  What are promising new approaches and strategies for implementing complete and living streets in California and in the U.S.?

Complete Streets for California 2012
Hosted by UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs
March 2nd, 8am – 5pm
Kyoto Grand Hotel
120 South Los Angeles Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Click here for more information and to register

Virtual Workshop to Plan for a Healthy Bay Area

Photo Credit: sarahdav on flickr

If you weren’t able to attend one of the Metropolitan Planning Commission’s “Plan Bay Area” public workshops, you can still attend virtually and weigh in on future transportation and land use development. Go here to participate in the virtual workshop.

You have the opportunity to watch video presentations that will help you learn about the planning process, and take surveys that enable you to vote on key priorities related to active transportation. Pay close attention to “step 4″ survey questions 1 & 2, as well as “step 6″ question 1, and make sure you vote to support Safe Routes to School,  and bicycle/pedestrian access!

The virtual workshop will be available until February 15.

Keep up the drumbeat for MTC Commissioners to support Safe Routes to School and bicycle/pedestrian funding by sending them a letter and attending key upcoming hearings. More information and sample letter here.

February California Complete Streets Action Team Meeting

Background: 

In California, Complete Streets Policy Legislation exists at the state level with AB1358 (2008), requiring cities and counties to include complete streets policies as part of their general plans as they are updated.  There is also statewide policy on Complete Streets at Caltrans through Deputy Directive 64-R1, and revisions to the CA Highway Design Manual are taking place now.  Throughout California, many counties and other local jurisdictions have, or are in the process of implementing complete streets policies.

This action team will be meeting via conference call on  February 15th, 10-11 am. 

Conference Call Number: 1-866-394-4146
Access Code: 553816012#
Mute/unmute: *4

Sign on to our Comment Letter for SCAG’s 2012 Draft RTP/SCS

Help us increase funding for Active Transportation 

The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) has recently released the draft of the 2012 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) and Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS).  The RTP/SCS lays out transportation and land use policies for the next 25 years in the Southern California Region.  It will determine the types of projects that are built and the amount of funding available for active transportation and Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs.

The Safe Routes to Schools National Partnership (SRTSNP) is coordinating public comments to the RTP/SCS at upcoming Regional Council Meetings and will be presenting out comment letter to SCAG on February 14th.   While we are generally, supportive of the plan, the SRTSNP is concernced with several aspects of the 2012 RTP/SCS.  Below is a summary of the changes we would like to see in the RTP/SCS.

Please consider reading our entire comment letter and signing on to voice your support for these changes.

Bay Area Regional Efforts to Restore Funding for Active Transportation

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition - Safe Routes to School. Flickr Photo Credit: sfbike

Update from January 13 Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) Planning Committee meeting

Last Friday, the Planning Committee of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the Administrative Committee of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) deliberated changes to the $250 million OneBayArea Grant program. The Committee members heard from a strong showing of the community about concerns that included reductions in funding for Safe Routes to School, too much flexibility for road development next to Priority Development Areas, lack of strong complete streets requirements, as well as lack of strong affordable housing and anti-displacement policies.

Community members and advocates who gave testimony included the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, Marin County Bicycle Coalition, East Bay Bicycle Coalition, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, Contra Costa Health Services, TransForm, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Prevention Institute, Urban Habitat, Greenbelt Alliance, Public Advocates, Presidio Community YMCA, and the San Francisco Unified School District. Others included Jasmine S. Chan of the University of California Cooperative Extension Alameda County, community members Cindy Winter, Cheryl Longinotti, and parents from three Berkeley elementary schools, Jed Waldman, Jenne King, and Joel Gerwein.

Help increase funding for Active Transportation in the 2012 RTP/SCS!

The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) has recently released the draft of their 2012 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) and Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS).  The RTP/SCS lays out transportation and land use policies for the next 25 years in the Southern California Region.  It will determine the types of projects that are built and the amount of funding available for active transportation and Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs.In the coming weeks SCAG will be holding a series of public workshops and hearings in each represented county (Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, and Imperial) to give the public (that means you) a chance to submit your comments and talk with SCAG staff about the plan.

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership is actively engaged in advocating for active transportation and SRTS projects in the 2012 RTP/SCS.  Our Southern California Policy Managers (Rye Baerg and Pauline Chow) will be on hand at these meetings offering our suggestions and engaging with stakeholders.  Our goals are to increase funding for active transportation, solidify a commitment for a regional complete streets policy, ensure that social and environmental justice are prioritized, and to fast track existing and planed bicycle and pedestrian projects.

We encourage you to share your thoughts on the 2012 RTP/SCS by attending these meetings.  Future meeting dates can be found here.  If you can attend please contact us to coordinate our strategy!

Long Beach – informing communitites in So Cal on how to be more bike friendly

 

hipster

Originally uploaded by Cecelia B

Les Miklosy, the Chair of the Complete Streets Task Force in Laguana Beach shared this great write up on a recent meeting in Newport Beach.  He captures some great elements of what is helping Long Beach be so successful in becoming such a great bikable city.

He attended the Bike Safety Meeting for the city of Newport Beach chaired by Councilwoman Nancy Gardner. Guest speaker was Charlie Gandy, Mobility Coordinator for the City of Long Beach. Charlie spoke about the infrastructure changes made to Long Beach streets like bike sharrows on Second street into Belmont Shores, Bike Stations, bike racks, bike lanes and separated Class I bike lanes. Here are the highlights of this meeting.

• A culture shift has occurred in Long Beach to adopt bike infrastructure like lanes, Sharrows, bike stations and racks.
• 100% of Long Beach city council support bicycle use campaigns
• Bikes are seen as a vehicle for quality living
• Bicycles are perceived by public as supporting an active living agenda
• Culture shift: blend bike riding into daily trips as alternative to car use
• Long Beach is re-assessed as a beach tour destination, not a suburb of Los Angeles, so make it user friendly (sound like Laguna Beach here?)
• Traffic Calming in Long Beach, threshold traffic speed is 20mph, above that businesses suffer, below that businesses thrive
• Long Beach raised $21M in 3 years all from outside sources, hired a full-time employ to do funding research
  Class I bike lanes raise property values on streets where implemented
• Over designed streets with reduced traffic counts justify reducing car capacity (LOS) and replacing lanes with multi-use bike lanes
• Mayor of LB is biggest fan of bike infrastructure, made political decision to support bike friendly infrastructure (complete street policy)
• Bike friendly business districts doubled through-traffic, the districts love the change to bike-friendly infrastructure
• Long Beach has not pursued Complete Streets Policy with state highways and Caltrans, worked on city streets only
• During Public Comments a vocal approval was given for cooperation and information sharing between activists working independently in different cities, San Clemente, Laguna Beach, CDM, Newport and Long Beach represented.

Thanks Les for providing this informative update! Did you know there are efforts in Laguna Beach supporting Complete Streets? Check out their blog

Complete Streets Comment letters

 

Small town, main street

Originally uploaded by Complete Streets

Read the letter that the California Safe Routes to School Network coordinated and submitted to the Office of Planning and Research in November.  I’m super excited to say that over 50 groups and individuals signed on in support of these comments.  That is fantastic.  And it’s great to that both  California Walks and WALKSacramento also submitted letters with meaningful advice, especially in regards to ADA issues,  on how the implementation of California Complete Streets legislation AB 1358 can further support walkable and bikable communities for all users – regardless of age or ability.

Many thanks to the many people who have worked tirelessly on the introduction, adoption and now implementation of California’s Complete Streets Policy.