The City of Hollister held another “Complete Streets” workshop Thursday at Rancho San Justo Middle School to discuss changes to Nash Road, Tres Pinos Road, Sunnyslope Road and McCray Street to make them more pedestrian-friendly.
“The solutions people presented were variable,” said Mary Paxton, the agency program manager for the city’s development services agency. “We want to make streets function for everyone.”
The first workshop was held in September, and Thursday’s meeting was an extension of that workshop.
She said some of the solutions people suggested were to put a “roundabout” or traffic circle where Nash Road turns into Tres Pinos Road to slow traffic.
She said the workshop participants also talked about putting “pedestrian islands” at crosswalks to help increase safety and reduce walking time.
“It gives the pedestrian more comfort crossing and increases time at the signal cycle for pedestrians to cross,” she said.
She said representatives from San Benito High School attended the workshop as well. The school’s master plan calls for the closing of Nash Road near the high school.
“The high school made it clear they want to see Nash Road closed,” she said. “There’s an alternative network for vehicles to navigate there going east to west.”
The workshop attendees also discussed how to put the roads on “street diets,” by making roads narrower and adding bike lanes with buffers.
“Some of these measures would make the streets more usable for all modes of transportation,” she said.
Paxton said she hopes to have another workshop by February to receive public input on the plan; she hopes to complete it by February of 2015.
“We want to use this as a plan to start making changes,” she said.
For more information and to complete a survey on what you might like to see in the Complete Streets plan, visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KQF6ZV6 for English or https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CGLVDFY en Espanol.
