City of Beverly Hills has released the draft Complete Streets Plan for public review and feedback. We need your help to make this the best plan on the Westside. But we have a long way to go.

The draft plan is 240+ pages of community context and best practices that begins to point the way toward safer streets, but the draft is relatively light when it comes to substance. Look past the pictures, tables, colorful charts and icons to see that the infrastructure, policy and program options comprise only 30 pages. Just three additional pages suggest the proposed implementation.

Despite its heft, this draft is light on vision: it doesn’t even begin to suggest what the bikeways network should look like. Beverly Hills is already a decade or more behind our municipal neighbors when it comes to striped lanes and measures to calm motor traffic. What I see in this draft plan are half-steps and some equivocation over the safest and most efficient crosstown routes. Where is the ambition?

We who ride Beverly Hills streets have a job to do: We must make sure that the final complete streets plan reflects our hard-won seat-of-the-pants wisdom about how to navigate this city safely.

So mark your calendars for THIS WEDNESDAY May 8th at 6pm at Beverly Hills City Hall to hear a presentation from city consultant Iteris. We had great support for Santa Monica Boulevard lanes but we need to get this band back together!

Come to share your perspective on the draft plan. You have your ideas about mobility and we need them in the final complete streets plan.

Please download the draft plan and give a close read to these sections of the technical report:

• Chapter 7: Recommended infrastructure (p. 85)
• Chapter 8: Recommended policies (p. 101)
• Chapter 9: Recommended programs (p. 109)
• Chapter 10: Implementation plan (p. 115)

Have a few minutes to add a few comments to the online version of the draft plan? Find it here: http://completestreets.beverlyhills.org/draft-plan-technical-report/

There is much work to be done in order to make the final complete streets plan the roadmap to safer streets that we need. Otherwise we will be stuck with only more well-illustrated shelfware. And the shelf is too crowded already!

Got any questions? Give me a shout!