The Pomona Director of Public Works is inviting all "stakeholders" to join in a discussion next Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. regarding an "open streets" event, or ciclovia. The Los Angeles version is called CicLAvia. CicLAvias are great opportunities to bring communities together through eliminating car traffic for six to eight hours, while encouraging active transportation. The concept began in Bogata, Colombia, in 1976.
I've been to the Los Angeles event twice and it is a great event. The Pomona one would be on a smaller scale, as the Los Angeles event attracts people region-wide, up to 100,000 of them at once. My primary concern with the Los Angeles event is the fact that some bicyclists treat it as a raceway and not an opportunity for all human-powered uses, including skateboarders, pedestrians, and just people hanging out on the street, to use the additional space created. In other words, it's a linear park, not a bicycle freeway.
It is also great to see that leadership has changed in Pomona from the retrograde days of just six years ago, when City leaders flushed a million dollar bike lane down the drain due to neighborhood opposition and political opportunism. AB 32 and SB 375 have forced Californians to be more cognizant of greenhouse gas emissions, and include greenhouse gas reductions in planning and land use decisions. An attempt to suspend AB 32 failed miserably in 2010 so it is clear that planning for greenhouse gases will only grow in the future, and one of the most effective ways to reduce carbon emissions, increase public health, and reduce dependence on foreign oil is to provide environments where people can use active transportation for daily tasks. Even today Pomona just has one bike lane, on Hamilton Boulevard, while many of the streets in South Pomona and Phillips Ranch are excessively wide and could be restriped easily to add a bike lane.
The stakeholder meeting is on Tuesday, January 31st, at 6 pm at the Cal Poly Downtown Center. The consultant will have maps of proposed closed streets and other information for consideration.
Please RSVP to Maura Montellano at 909-620-2262 or via email at maura_montellano@ci.pomona.ca.us.
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7 comments:
Why does Pomona need bike lanes? I see very few people biking in Pomona. We have sidewalks. Make more sidewalks. They are much more envionmentaly friendly. Bike Lanes are just more wasted money on an over served minority.
@Anonymous - that a bit like saying "we don't need a bridge across this river because we don't see many swimmers crossing here." I think that investment in bike infrastructure (and in sidewalks, as you suggest) is good - both for the safety of limited numbers of existing cyclists (and pedestrians) and to encourage more healthy active transportation in the future.
There are actually a lot of bicyclists in Pomona. Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they don't exist. With the Pomona street grid many bicyclists choose alternate streets that are not the main streets - example, Monterey instead of Holt, or Palomares and Park instead of Garey. I see bikes all the time on those streets, and they could easily be converted into bicycle boulevards with major traffic redirected into arterials like Garey, Towne, and White.
I am just saying that any money this city has or gets can be better used in other areas. I bike sometimes and have no trouble navigating this city. I just avoid most of it since it is so unattractive. And the point was made that the alternate routes are good enough. I think that proves that any money does not need to be used on bike lanes.
Tell that to Gabriel Perez Facio. He lost his life December 28th, 2011 in Pomona, California. His ghost bike is on Town near 5th. He was 44 years old. The hit and run driver turn himself into police. I see riders everywhere. They are mostly driving on sidewalks for the the lack of bike lanes. The city has 1 mile of bike lane that serves for children going to school.
The People riding on the sidewalks, other than children, are idiots and are the same ones who ride on the wrong side of the street and would not use a bike lane. Please don't waste my money. Or, since there are soooo many riders, charge a bike licence fee and let that money pay for bike lanes.
I notice that all the negative comments come from Anonymous. It would be nice if Anon would at least create a screen name so that we can know whether it's one person making these or a number of people.
Anon #1 says we don't need bike lanes because there are so few bikes.
Anon #2 says bike lanes shouldn't be a priority and that money should be spent on other thing.
Anon #3 uses their own anecdote to suggest bike lanes aren't necessary (at least Anon #3 says they ride a bike)
Anon #4 trashes all bike riders as idiots who don't know what they're doing and won't use bike lanes anyway.
Hmmm . . .
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