King Street Bike Boulevard - Action Alert
The City of Santa Cruz has been promising cyclists a dedicated bike facility on King Street for more than 20 years as a way to encourage cycling on the Westside of Santa Cruz and to draw cyclists off of Mission. For the past couple of months, People Power has been meeting with residents of the north-of-Mission neighborhoods to assess and garner support for converting King Street into a Bike Boulevard. This option would not only create safe and quiet neighborhoods for those who live there, but would also create a safe and pleasant through-route for cyclists and pedestrians.
People Power members can help by talking to people who live in the King Street/Upper Westside neighborhood and asking them to sign our petition.
For now, we are focusing on getting signatures from residents of the King Street and Upper Westside neighborhoods. Please contact the People Power office at 425-0665 for more background information before collecting signatures.
Downloads (PDF)
For more information, please contact Micah at 425-0665 or micah@peoplepowersc.org
The Broadway-Brommer Bike Path
The City of Santa Cruz has approved construction of a bike path to connect Broadway and Brommer Streets. The result would be a great new way to bike the length of our Santa Cruz-Live Oak-Capitola urbanized area—the most direct, the safest, and the fastest. And it would be an important action by our community to help solve global warming—a bike route this attractive would entice a lot of people to leave the car at home for a short errand and take the bike instead. Bike path opponents and their lawyers have caused some delay, but so far the courts have completely rejected their arguments. We can hope that this great new cross-town bike route will be available soon, improving local transportation and the environment.
Stop The Downtown Parking Garage
To get directly involved in our campaign to stop the downtown parking garage please read these comments from People Power campaigner Rick Longinotti.
As you may have heard, on September 23 the City Council will vote on whether to fund the initial design for a 5-story garage at Cedar/Cathcart. This structure would cost $42 million over 30 years. It would displace the Farmers Market.
We have the potential to not only stop another subsidy to automobile use, but launch an innovative program of incentives for downtown employees to use alternative transportation.
We are requesting that before authorizing any funding for the garage, the City Council implement the Parking Demand Management measures recommended by the 2003 Master Transportation Study (MTS). (See http://www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us/pw/MST2003/index.htm) The City and the University paid for this $500,000 study that included a list of recommendations for reducing auto trips, and making better use of existing parking resources downtown. According to the MTS, "Managing parking and demand for vehicle travel are the most cost-effective ways to shift travel behavior." Some of MTS recommendations:
- Prioritize customer parking over all-day parking in surface lots and meters. This would be accomplished through appropriate pricing policies, and through moving all permit parking to the existing multi-story garages.
- Financial incentives for employee use of alternative transportation. That could include subsidized bus passes, emergency ride home taxi vouchers, cash, credit at bike stores, car-sharing, discounted permits for carpooling, etc. Right now the downtown workforce occupies over 60% of city-operated parking spaces. Convincing a fraction of these commuters to take alternative transportation will free up the number of spaces that the new garage would provide. That goal could be accomplished at a fraction of the cost of building the garage.
- Park & Ride lots with shuttle service for downtown employees
- Trip reduction ordinance for new developments
For more information and an online petition, see the website: http://www.sensibletransportation.org/vibrantdowntown
Taking Action
- Please take a moment to e-mail the Council on this issue, asking that they implement parking demand management before taking any action on the garage. citycouncil@ci.santa-cruz.ca.us
- Come to the City Council meeting on September 23.
- Send this web page to others.
For more info contact Rick Longinotti longinotti@baymoon.com or, Micah Posner micah@peoplepowersc.org.
Outrageous!
Local Politicians Ignore Voters, Push Destruction of Environment
The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) continues to try to widen Highway 1 one piece at a time. Despite the rejection of a highway-widening ballot measure in 2004 by county voters, and a recent poll indicating that county voters would still not pass a tax measure to widen Highway 1, the RTC continues to steamroll and pave over the will of its electorate. We need to stand up against the RTC, and protect our environment and democracy.
People Power Director, Micah Posner, receives United Way's Community Hero Award
This past fall, People Power director Micah Posner was named a Community Hero in the Natural Environment category by United Way's Community Assessment Project (CAP), which honors individuals "whose efforts help move Santa Cruz County toward the achievement of community goals."
Cyclists Allowed (Use of Full Lane)
If this sign had been posted on Mission Street,
two recent fatalities would have been prevented.
Ten years ago the process for designing Mission Street was drawing to a close. Lines were drawn and plans were printed up. Task force members, City Council members, and engineers congratulated themselves. Caltrans and the city council agreed to widen the street to allow four lanes of automobile traffic. Everyone was happy with the design, except for bicyclists. People Power's then-director, Ron Goodman, had lobbied for a three-lane street with bike lanes and a center turn lane—a configuration that is arguably better for slow-moving commercial traffic of all types. He was ignored. "I knew that people were going to get killed as a result of that decision and I told them that. There was too much pressure to increase the capacity for cars." People Power had 60 members at the time.
GreenWays to School
We all know that young people have the power to change the future of our community and planet. Thanks to a grant from the Webster Foundation, People Power will soon be working with local schools through GreenWays to School—a new program designed to help students make connections between personal transportation choices and climate change, oil use, and the health of their planet and themselves.
Rail Trail Purchase Appears to Be Back on Track
After more than a year of inaction, the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) has issued a new schedule for the purchase of the Union Pacific rail corridor between Santa Cruz and Watsonville. The purchase is expected to be completed September 2008. The purchase opens the way to the construction of a bicycle/pedestrian trail along with freight and passenger service.
Bike Traffic Safety School Begins
The first class of the Santa Cruz Bicycle Traffic Safety School opens on January 24, 2008, after years of work by the Traffic Safety Coalition with support from People Power and Traffic Judge Kim Baskett. This means that if you get a ticket on your bicycle you now have the option to attend a 2–3 hour class on safe cycling, with a charge of $35, instead of paying a fine of $100 or more.
Folding Bikes Incentive Program
The Folding Bikes in Buses program offers a financial incentive for Santa Cruz residents to ride a folding bike for short commutes or utility trips instead of driving an automobile.
The incentives will assist with the cost of purchasing a folding bike, while also providing discounted bus passes and safety training.
All Santa Cruz residents are eligible to participate in the program.
To request more information, or to enroll in the program, please call the Santa Cruz Area TMA at (831) 423-9569 ext. 125 or visit their web site at:
http://santacruztma.org/folding_bike.htm
People Power Offers Valet Bike Parking
People Power now offers valet bike parking at events. Valet bike parking allows people to ride their bicycles to an event and leave them with a People Power volunteer who will park and watch it within an enclosed environment. more »