The City of San Luis Obispo is seeking public input on a plan to make Broad Street safer for bicyclists, part of an overall plan to connect the north and south ends of Broad from Foothill Boulevard to Downtown.
The City has developed three options for the design of a “Broad Street Bicycle Boulevard,” described in a news release by Luke Schwartz, SLO’s transportation planner-engineer with Public Works, as, “a low-stress, priority route for bicyclists and pedestrians that will connect the Downtown core to Foothill Boulevard.”
Part of the 2013 Bicycle Transportation Plan, the project has been getting a lot of input already and the staff has spent the past year processing that information and come up with three preferred options that are scheduled to go before the City Council in a study session starting at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 15 as an added item to its regular, weekly meeting at City Hall. There was also a Bike Committee meeting July 20 on the plan.
If readers can’t make it to the meeting they can find detailed project information and give their input online, see: www.slocity.org/opencityhall click on the “Broad Street Bicycle Boulevard Survey” icon.
Each option includes traffic calming features like roundabouts, added markings on the pavement, and more signage to “enhance bicycle facilities and intersection crossings, as well as features that benefit the pedestrian environment and neighborhood quality, such as enhanced street lighting, sidewalk improvements, new [ADA] accessible curb ramps and potential for streetscape and storm-water management elements,” the City said in a news release.
These options are only the first phase of the Plan, and just focuse on improvements north of Hwy 101 (Broad Street dead ends on either side of the freeway).
“In the long-term,” the City said, “the City supports Caltrans’ plans for the closure of the Highway 101 ramps at Broad Street, which requires additional improvements to other City interchanges prior to implementation.”
Perhaps the most ambitious part of this plan is the City’s proposal to build a bicycle-pedestrian overpass spanning Hwy 101, “to complete a continuous, low-stress bicycle route between Foothill Boulevard and the Downtown at Monterey Street.”
Until the State removes the freeway on-off ramps, the bicycle boulevard will continue to run down Chorro Street, which crosses the freeway via an underpass and runs along with a Class 2 (painted on) bicycle lane.
It’s apparently a tricky job. “Each project alternative has unique benefits and drawbacks and will require challenging decisions to achieve a balance between improving safety and mobility for pedestrians and bicyclists,” the City said, “maintaining sufficient access for drivers, and retaining a quality neighborhood environment for residents of this area.”
The City will have staff members canvas the surrounding neighborhoods around the project area, as well as across town, to try and get a sense of which alternative people prefer.
The Broad Street Bicycle Boulevard is “a priority project supporting several city programs and policies, including the City’s Multimodal Transportation Major City Goal, the General Plan objective to achieve 20-percent bicycle mode share citywide, and a Vision Zero initiative that’s supposed to eliminate traffic-related deaths and severe injuries for all road users by 2030.”
Another SLO transportation planner, Jennifer Rice, said their very preliminary cost estimates for the overall project is some $5.5 million, with $4.5 million of that just for the overpass.
The City would be responsible for paying for that overpass, and Rice said they would seek grants to pay for most of it. “Fortunately, there are a lot of grant opportunities for projects of this nature,” she said.
But the sticking point to that part is Caltrans’ plans to remove the freeway ramps at Broad Street. Rice said they do not know when that might be funded and until that time, the City can only continue to lend its support for the project.
Readers are advised to go to the project website at: www.slocity.org/opencityhall to see past meeting summaries, detailed analysis findings, and concept designs for each project alternative.
Rice said that they’ve done quite a bit of work on the Broad Street plan. “There is a lot to it,” she said, “the overall concept intent is one thing, then the traffic study adds another component, and finally, the community feedback brings in more considerations. A lot of things at work here.”
-By Neil Farrell
