Riding a bicycle to school may become safer for Anzar High
School students living in San Juan Bautista, if the county is able
to put together the funding to build bike lanes on San Juan
Highway.
Hollister – Riding a bicycle to school may become safer for Anzar High School students living in San Juan Bautista, if the county is able to put together the funding to build bike lanes on San Juan Highway.
Ever since Anzar moved to its campus outside of San Juan Bautista in 1997, school administrators have raised concerns that the three and a half mile stretch of highway between San Juan Bautista and the school is unsafe for cyclists. The route lacks shoulders and is bordered in many places by drainage ditches, according Council of Governments Traffic Planner Veronica Lezama.
This month the county will apply for a $450,000 grant from the Safe Routes to School program offered by Caltrans. The money would be used to construct bike lanes on both sides of the highway.
Anzar Principal Charlene McKowen could not be happier about the prospect of a safer route to school for her students. “I’m in full support,” she said.
McKowen said the school encourages students to refrain from biking to school on the highway because of the dangerous traffic.
“They’re not doing it because it’s so scary,” she said. “They’re afraid they’ll go into a ditch.”
The estimated cost for the entire bike lane project is about $1.3 million. In addition to applying for the $450,000, the county has applied for a grant from the state Bicycle Transportation Authority, which could cover the remaining cost of construction, Lezama said.
Plans for the bike lane project are about 35 percent done, Lezama said, but no construction date has been set pending resolution of the funding questions.
Lezama said that parents have told her that they would allow their kids to ride to school if there was a bike lane on San Juan Highway. And McKowen said she is sure that if it were safer, Anzar students would ride their bikes to school.
“Without a doubt,” she said, adding, “I’d love to see our bike racks used.”
