Public invited to sound off on bike, pedestrian plan
Imagine a San Benito County with more than 100 miles of
pedestrian and cycle routes, a place where one can stroll, jog or
cycle along a dedicated path that stretches nearly to Gilroy.
Public invited to sound off on bike, pedestrian plan
Imagine a San Benito County with more than 100 miles of pedestrian and cycle routes, a place where one can stroll, jog or cycle along a dedicated path that stretches nearly to Gilroy.
That’s the vision presented at a public workshop last week. Some 30 people attended the workshop at the Hollister Community Center. The meeting was coordinated by the county Council of Governments, an inter-agency organization charged with coordinating regional transportation needs.
The meeting began with a presentation by Jennifer Donlon of Alta Planning and Design, a firm specializing in bicycle and pedestrian planning with offices in Berkeley, San Diego, Benicia and eight other cities.
The meeting was the second in a series of sessions intended to gather public feedback about the developing plan. Alta staff hope to have a completed plan by next summer.
The plan now envisions safe, handicapped-friendly crossings at all the intersections in Hollister bisected by a Union Pacific rail line. Today, the tracks cut through Hollister at an acute angle, creating barrier that cyclists and those with limited mobility find difficult to cross.
But the railroad easement also presents opportunities. The plan envisions a dedicated rail trail all the way from downtown Hollister to Santa Clara County paralleling the tracks.
The plan describes three types of bikeways: those dedicated to pedestrians and bikes, those marked as separate lanes on surface streets and others that are indicated only by signs.
The plan, for example, advocates designating Hwy. 25 from Hollister to Pinnacles National Monument as a bikeway.
After Donlon’s 40-minute presentation, people at the session were given feedback sheets and markers so they could indicate issues and ideas they had on a series of maps hung on the walls of the Hollister Community Center.
The plan encourages local business owners to install bicycle racks, and makes provision for crossing signs at busy intersections that include countdown timers to let pedestrians know how much time they have to safely cross.
The draft plan concentrates on links to and from local schools, and includes eight areas where gaps in sidewalk networks need to be addressed. Six of the eight are along key arteries to local elementary schools.
A copy of the draft plan is available at the Council of Governments Web site at www.sanbenitocog.org. The date of the next public steering meeting has not yet been set.
