For city engineering official David Rubcic, an effort to reduce downtown traffic from four to two lanes should result in a more friendly environment for pedestrians and bicyclists.
“This idea is to slow the traffic down going through downtown and to make it more pedestrian friendly,” said Rubcic, the city’s interim engineering manager.
As part of a collaboration between the city and Hollister Downtown Association, engineering and business officials have been examining details to execute in the so-called downtown traffic corridor study, approved by the city council in the spring. A big component of the plan is addressing the parking layout in the downtown core from Third to South streets.
Officials are progressing on plans to reduce the downtown’s four lanes to two while installing turn pockets at intersections that don’t already have them. The involved parties had considered other ideas such as a concept—introduced by paid consultant TJKM in the corridor study—which would involve diagonally backing vehicles into parking spots. But HDA economic restructuring committee members and city officials ended up going with a plan to continue parallel parking on San Benito Street, Rubcic said.
“We can’t implement that in the downtown area,” he said of the back-in diagonal parking that may be broached for areas like Monterey Street or San Felipe Road, “because there’s not enough right-of-way.”
Rubcic will take the traffic corridor study before Hollister council members at 6 p.m. Tuesday for a special meeting on the matter.
Along with parking from Third to South streets, talks revolving around the plan also have included ideas such as including curb bulbouts and sharrows, or markers reminders motorists to share lanes with bicyclists.
As for a timing, the consultant is reviewing comments that should be finished in a week or two. After that, the city can put the project out to contractors for an open-bidding process, he said.
