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    Barry's Avatar
    Barry
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    PD: Sebastopol looks for ways to create bike lanes

    Sebastopol looks for ways to create bike lanes
    https://www.watchsonomacounty.com/20...te-bike-lanes/

    By BOB NORBERG
    THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

    Name:  Sebastopol-bike.jpg
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    A cyclist on Main Street in Sebastopol keeps his
    eye on traffic as he heads south. JEFF KAN LEE/PD
    For all its green leanings, Sebastopol doesn’t have a single bicycle lane, which chagrined officials say is simply because its streets are too narrow.

    “It is very ironic,” said City Councilman Larry Robinson, an avid cyclist. “I think we would see Sebastopol as a much greener place if we had bicycle facilities, there would be more people getting around town and do shopping if they felt more comfortable and safe.”

    Sebastopol is the only Sonoma County city without a bike lane, even though it has the Joe Rodota Trail multi-purpose path coming in from Santa Rosa and the West County Trail going out to Forestville.

    Designated bike routes and a short stretch of bike-pedestrian path behind Analy High School connect the two trails, but there is nothing else for bicycles in the city.

    “Sebastopol is this go-green, nuke-free place and there is no place to ride a bike,” said Nathan Deurloo of Santa Rosa, who had been riding on a sidewalk going onto the Rodota trail.

    The city is at the intersection of Highway 12 and Highway 116, and Caltrans for the past 20 years has steadfastly refused to allow bike lanes on the two state roads, although that may be changing, said Sue Kelly, the city’s engineering director.

    And Sebastopol’s city streets, which were laid out 100 years ago, are narrow and often chopped up as they wend through business and residential areas, providing no space for bike lanes, Kelly said.

    The city hired W-Trans, a Santa Rosa consultant, to come up with recommendations for a bicycle network. The $50,000 cost was paid with traffic impact fees.

    W-Trans has proposed a number of streets for bike lanes and some as designated to be shared by bicycles and vehicles.

    It would require removing parking from one side of the street in some cases, and in the removal of a median strip or removing a street lane in two others.

    “We are studying the feasibility of the network, we do not have the answers yet,” Kelly said. “The big one will be whether we remove parking in various areas. That will be a tough decision.”

    The lack of parking is already seen as a problem and eliminating any of it may meet with some resistance, said Paula Downing, who manages Sebastopol’s weekly farmers market, which is held at the plaza.

    “It will only make people more irritable, because there is no place to park,” Downing said. “It is a huge problem, a problem our business faces on Sundays.”

    Kelly said funding any improvements will be an issue, although having a list of projects will enable the city to apply for grants.

    “We don’t have a large fund sitting there ready to spend on it,” Kelly said. “There may be some relatively inexpensive things we can do, it may end up simply a matter of signage, it is hard to say.”

    For now, seasoned cyclists say the lack of bike lanes doesn’t stop them from riding, but it may stop others.

    “It’s challenging,” said Cindy Meyerson of Nevada City, a former Sebastopol resident who was getting her bicycle seat adjusted Thursday at West County Revolution bike shop. “It’s all about knowing the roads and having to go alternate routes to avoid cars … I have friends who absolutely refuse to take their kids out on bikes.”

    Larkin Morgan, a member of Sebastopol TrailMakers, a bike path advocacy group, said she rides cautiously and with the attitude that drivers don’t see her.

    “I cycle these roads all the time with my kids. There are safe routes through town,” Morgan said. “The infrastructure is not here, but the drivers here are much kinder, it counterbalances it somewhat.”

    —–O—–

    Recommendations for a Sebastopol bicycle network:

    • Bicycle lanes on Bodega Avenue from Ragle Road to Washington Avenue, on Covert Lane and Healdsburg Avenue, on Petaluma Avenue, and on North Main Street in front of Analy High School. The plan would require removing parking from one side of the street.

    • Also, bicycle lanes for North Main Street from Healdsburg Avenue to McKinley Avenue, which would require removing a southbound lane of traffic, and a bike lane on South Main Street from McKinley to the merge at Petaluma Avenue.

    • Some streets would be marked as shared by motorists and bicycles, called “sharrows,” with a designated riding path three feet away from parked cars to avoid motorists opening doors.

    • Streets proposed for sharrows are Sebastopol Avenue and Bodega Avenue from Morris Street to Parkside School, Washington Avenue, Murphy Avenue, Pleasant Hill Road from Covert Lane to Bodega Avenue, and Ragle Road from Covert Lane to Bodega Avenue.

    • The recommendations are to go to a City Council study session in January or February. There is no estimate of how much they would cost.
    Last edited by Barry; 11-23-2010 at 11:53 AM.
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