by Camas Frank
In case seeing the phrase Bike Month splashed all over public transit and on banners downtown caught anyone flat footed, May is SLO County’s month; set aside for a raft of cycling related events, and organized by Regional Rideshare.
Along with breakfasts for riders and days set aside with incentives to bike to work, residents are encouraged to get creative in the way’s they integrate cycles into their lives.
In the City of SLO that isn’t too hard.
As Adam Fukushima, long time resident and current bicycle project coordinator for Caltrans District 5 explains, within two square miles around the city’s downtown there are bikeway facilities built into the urban landscape that are normally only at home in major cities.
To celebrate bike month, and raise some public awareness, he led a trip of about 12 local riders on a five mile loop around the city stopping at all the facilities that Caltrans had a role in and pointing out some of places that are in the town’s own master plans.
Joined by Jennifer Rice, a transportation planner with the city, and some local bike advisory board members and activists, they proceeded down the paths in Meadow Park that connect neighborhoods, trough traffic past Fire Station No. 1 on the corner of South and Broad and into the downtown area with stop overs at the rail station, the railroad safety trail near Cal Poly, and up the north-east leg of Broad to Foothill.
That corridor is in the works to be the city’s next bicycle boulevard, cutting off through traffic from Los Osos and Foothill residents.
Caltrans and the city have a lot of traffic flow studies to do though before they could take away the Hwy 101 southbound onramp near the Lincoln Deli. The state agency already doesn’t like the ramp, Fukushima noted, since it doesn’t leave enough room for vehicles to accelerate to a safe highway speed.
Neighborhood residents and bike use activists are in favor of the corridor plan, which city officials held a preliminary public information meeting about in April.
Officially a Caltrans event, the ride emulated the miles and route a Cal Poly student or in-city commuter might put in running errands for a day, albeit one with a strange checklist. At the Amtrak station several bike friendly facilities go unnoticed, including a special light to cross or proceed along South St., a roundabout (which are easier for cyclists than Stop signs), and Fukushima noted, there are plans for the train to start carrying more bikes aboard in designated racks on the ‘Coast Liner’.
Fukushima and Rice explained some of the other features that have helped keep roadways safe for cycles including the green paint “bike-box” at the stop light on South and Madonna, near the Caltrans district headquarters, and the engineered green lanes that mark safe passage across the northbound onramp on California near the CHP station.
Bike Month events continue through the end of May. Visit www.rideshare.org for listings.
