May 7: Joint Park and Rec Commission Meeting on Ped and Bike Plan
The Draft Piedmont Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan is available for your review. Readers will be interested to learn many changes proposed for Piedmont. The City and the commissions are continuing to solicit resident input on the plan prior to City Council consideration. Considerable effort and expense have gone into the preparation of the draft plan. Review it now and provide your ideas to the Recreation and Park commissions at their meeting or send comments addressed to the Commissioners at tulloch@ci.piedmont.ca.us.
The joint meeting will be held Wednesday, May 7, at 5:30 pm in the City Hall Council Chambers, 120 Vista Avenue, in Piedmont.
The Piedmont Park and Recreation Commissions will hold a special joint meeting to hear about and discuss the Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan process. This is also another opportunity for the public to find out more about the plan and to voice their opinions.
The meeting will be held Wednesday, May 7, at 5:30 pm in the City Hall Council Chambers, 120 Vista Avenue, in Piedmont. At the meeting, the City’s consultant will describe the planning process to date, outline the remaining steps before the plan is finalized and be available to answer questions from the Commissioners and members of the public.
In particular, the consultant’s presentation will highlight the list of ideas that was presented to the public in February and March for improving conditions for walking and biking in Piedmont. The ideas include three types of improvements: (1) physical on-street projects, (2) programs and activities and, (3) changes to City policies and practices. Some of the ideas are:
- Improvements to particularly busy or challenging crosswalks
- “Road diets” on the four-lane sections of Grand and Highland (removing one lane in each direction to slow down traffic and make room for a bike lanes and a center turn lane)
- Stronger enforcement of traffic laws
- Programs to promote traffic safety and to encourage walking and biking, especially among school kids
- A citywide network of bikeways, with bike lanes, “sharrows” (stencils on the street indicating that cyclists may use the full lane) and signage
Feedback on the ideas from the Park and Recreation Commissions will be added to the feedback received to date from the public and also from the Planning Commission. The feedback will be used to refine the list of ideas into a 10-year “work program” (2015‒2024) for implementing the Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan.
“You are encouraged to attend the May 7th meeting, or you may wish to watch the public hearing on KCOM, cable 27. Alternatively, if you want to watch the meeting live or later after the meeting, you can do so by logging on to the City’s website at www.ci.piedmont.ca.us: on the right hand side of the homepage under the “KCOM” heading, click on the “On-line Video” link, then scroll down under the “Sections on this Page” heading, click on the “Park Commission” link, then on the “May 7, 2014“, click on the “Video” or “In Progress” link and start watching!”
| The PBMP (Pedestrian Bicycle Master Plan) is being funded entirely through a grant from the Alameda County Transportation Commission (CTC;www.alamedactc.org) and through the City’s existing funds for pedestrian and bicycle improvements (pass-through Measure B funds), also distributed by the Alameda CTC. |
