Santa Monica Lanes Goes to Council on March 4th
Update: We will meet up before the meeting at Peets Coffee (258 S. Beverly Drive) Tuesday at 5:45 pm. We’ll grab a drink and at 6:45 ride north on Beverly Drive to City Hall. Here is the City Council agenda (item F1) and the accompanying staff report. See you there!
Put this in your calendar: City Council will consider the Blue-Ribbon Committee’s recommendation to incrementally expand Santa Monica Boulevard and add a class II bicycle lane in each direction. The meeting is March 4th at 7pm.
The key question before Council: Should the city increase the curb-to-curb width of the boulevard? And if expanded, should the city stripe bicycle lanes as the Blue Ribbon Committee recommended? Proponents of a separate bicycle lane for this key corridor see it as a necessary step toward creating a future citywide bike network as envisioned in our 1977 Bicycle Master Plan. Public input to the Blue-Ribbon Committee overwhelmingly favored a bicycle lane too. (Read more about that in our committee recaps.)
We know our streets can be made safer for those who walk, ride and even drive because we reviewed 5 years of collision injury data and found that we’re making scant progress on reducing road-borne harm. This is our opportunity to bring directly to City Council our concerns about road safety.
The Council needs your input! Councilmembers can reached by phone at 310-285-1013. Or plan to attend on March 4th at 7pm to address Council during public comment (immediately preceding the item). Drop us a line if you have any questions.
[Added: Ted Rogers of BikinginLA has a nice Open Letter to Beverly Hills City Council that sums up the issues. Thanks Ted!]