The California Department of Transportation recently awarded
more than $700,000 to San Benito County for the construction of
bike lanes on San Juan Highway.
HOLLISTER
The California Department of Transportation recently awarded more than $700,000 to San Benito County for the construction of bike lanes on San Juan Highway.
With the award, Transportation Planner Veronica Lezama said the $1.9 million bike lanes – proposed to connect San Juan Bautista and Anzar High School – are now fully funded. Construction should begin in summer 2008, she said, with work finishing six to eight months later.
Asked if the bike lanes would benefit her students, Anzar Principal Charlene McKowen said, “Well, duh.”
The highway, McKowen said, is “pretty treacherous,” so only serious bicyclists ride to school.
“If I were a parent, I wouldn’t let my child ride on the highway,” she said.
That could change in a year or so. COG plans to build “class two” bike lanes, meaning that they will run along the shoulder of the highway. The transportation agency also plans to educate the bicyclists and drivers on how to safely share the road, Lezama said.
“We just want to make both parties aware of each other,” she said.
San Juan Bautista Mayor George Dias, who chairs COG’s board of directors, acknowledged the bike lanes could create safety concerns, but he said they would be “100 percent better” than the existing highway.
“Let’s get this thing fixed before we have a catastrophe,” Dias said.
The lanes won’t just be used by students, he added.
“It will not only benefit the school, it’s going to benefit the bike riders in general,” he said.
Brian Lucas, owner of Off the Chain Bikes in Hollister, agreed that the new lanes could attract recreational bicyclists. Building the lanes on the highway shoulder – rather than as a separate path – will allow people to ride as quickly as they want, he noted.
“If that’s the case, you’re going to get the more experienced cyclist using this,” Lucas said.
Other scenic highways, including Highway 101, are “packed with cyclists,” he said.
Lezama said she’s hoping locals will also use the bike lanes to ride to work or to the bus station at Anzar.
The $700,000 grant is particularly generous, she said – it was this year’s third-largest award from the Caltrans Bicycle Transportation Account and it made up around 10 percent of total statewide funding.
“We were surprised, but we totally believed in the project,” Lezama said. “We were right behind Orange County. I thought that was a real compliment.”
People have been talking about building the bike lanes since Anzar moved to its current location outside San Juan Bautista in 1997, so McKowen said she’s excited that construction could be starting in just a few months.
“I just keep getting templates for letters to write (requesting more funding),” she said. “Each time I’m positive and hopeful that this time it will happen.”
