BLUE FOLDER ITEM
Blue folder items are additional back up material to administrative reports and/or public comments received after the printing and distribution of the agenda packet for receive and file.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
AUGUST 16, 2022
N.2 DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION REGARDING THE CITY’S LIVING STREETS POLICY, THE BEACH CITIES HEALTH DISTRICT’S STREETS FOR ALL PROGRAM AND
RELATED GRANT OPPORTUNITIES, AND THE PREPARATION OF A LIVING STREETS
DESIGN MANUAL
CONTACT: TED SEMAAN, PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR
PUBLIC COMMUNICATION
From: Grace Peng
To: CityClerk; Lauren Nakano
Subject: Redondo Beach City Council comment on N1 Living Streets Date: Tuesday, August 16, 2022 1:27:55 PM
Attachments: RB Living Streets.pdf
CAUTION: Email is from an external source; Stop, Look, and Think before opening attachments or links.
Please forward my comment letter to the council members and Ted Semaan. thank-you,
Grace
16 August 2022
Honorable Bill Brand
Mayor, Redondo Beach
415 Diamond Street
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
Re: Living Streets
Dear Honorable Mayor Brand, City Council Members, and Public Works, I want to thank y0u for developing the 2013 Living Streets Policy and adopting the 2011 South Bay Bicycle Master Plan and the SBCCOG Local Travel Network (LTN).
I am writing today to urge you to think bigger and bolder, and act faster in developing and implementing our plans. In particular, I am worried that the Redondo Beach portion of the SBCCOG Local Travel Network is too sparse, indirect and steep. As you know, SBCCOG is writing grants to obtain funding to build out the LTN in phases and the Beach Cities and El Segundo are going together in Phase 1 (shown in blue). I’ll limit my suggestions today to Phase 1.
Manhattan and Hermosa Beaches’ networks are substantially denser than that of Redondo Beach. Compare North Redondo Beach with East Manhattan Beach. In EMB, schools and parks are surrounded and connected by a dense and redundant network that allows travelers to avoid steep hills or go directly if they (or their electric motor) is strong enough. Redondo Beach’s network doesn’t touch many of the schools, much less surround them. We won’t qualify for Safe Routes to School funding1 (SRTS) if our plan doesn’t include Safe Routes to School.
School traffic makes up nearly a third of our city’s peak AM/PM traffic. In 1969, 48% of children 5-14 walked or bicycled to school and 89% of K-8 students that lived less than 1 mile from school walked or bicycled to school2. SRTS has the potential to reduce traffic, improve the health and fitness of our children, give our children independence, and give our parents desperately needed time. Let’s revise our plan near schools and get us some free money. 2 http://guide.saferoutesinfo.org/introduction/the_decline_of_walking_and_bicycling.cfm 1 https://www.transportation.gov/mission/health/Safe-Routes-to-School-Programs Molly Steinsapir’s death on a steep hill in Pacific Palisades taught us that gravity plus steep hills can have deadly consequences. It’s all too easy to pick up excessive speed and lose control while riding a heavy bike—electric or acoustic. As a physicist, I have the experience and judgment to adjust my routes according to my total bike weight. When I carry 50 pounds of groceries on my bike, I take a different, much flatter route for safety.
Thus, our bike network needs to be designed with hills in mind. Some users may prefer a flatter route. Others may prefer a more direct route. We should serve a wide variety of road users, for different trip purposes. We need to plan for an alternative to Ripley, with its 15% grade hill between Blossom and Rindge.
Inglewood Avenue is a barrier for micro mobility because it’s disconcerting to travel on such a busy and fast street, but there are so few ways to cross it with a traffic signal. Put a sidewalk level 2-way bike path on the west side of Inglewood on the short block between Grant and Ripley (shown in blue). They install a scramble light at Grant and Ripley so that cyclists can clear the curve east of Inglewood and the merge area west of Inglewood before motorists.
Drivers routinely drive into the painted bike lane on the curve as they pick up speed going downhill under the railroad bridge. Put some concrete k-rails through the curve and bridge (shown in red).
The removal of Grant from the LTN is also highly concerning. Until we build out protected bike lanes on Artesia, Grant is the most level East-West route through a hilly region with a maximum grade of 3% between Inglewood and Aviation. Deletion of Grant (dashed purple) from the LTN and substitution of Rockefeller and Huntington is insufficient.
Westbound cyclists on one-way Rockefeller would need to climb 2 hills of 4% and 6% grade (and stop at 12 stop signs) instead of one hill on Grant of 3% grade. Eastbound cyclists on Huntington would need to climb 3 hills of 6%, 5.5% and 4% grade (and stop at 11 stop signs).
Grant has 6 traffic lights that heavily favor East-West travel, so it is possible to bicycle the entire length with 0-1 stops vs 11-12 on Rockefeller or Huntington.
Cyclists stop and restart on hills with great difficulty. I know a senior who stopped cycling after he toppled over on Ripley near Flagler trying to restart from a stop sign. One slow-speed topple with classmates watching could be enough to make a kid give up. This is traumatic for the child, and creates one more kid that needs to be chauffeured for years. I know we want our children and seniors to enjoy mobility independence. Let’s give them supportive and safe route options.
The entrance to Birney ES is on Grant, not Rockefeller. Don’t put the kids in the bottom of a valley and make them climb another 20 foot hill before school.
Rockefeller and Huntington are one-way streets that allow parking on both sides. Bicyclists are trapped in the middle with nowhere to move when a car comes up behind them. Motorists can easily pass bicyclists on Grant, which has a wide bike lane.
Protection on an East-West street is extremely important when the sun is low and drivers’ eyes.
For optimal safety, we should consider reversing the parking and bike lane to create a parking-protected bike lane suitable for ages 8-80 on Grant. You can make it parking protected in some areas, and designate them as loading areas in others (e.g. in front of the schools, an area on each block for delivery trucks).
I understand the concern about golf carts on Grant. As a frequent bicyclist and driver in Grant, I believe they would pose no greater problem than delivery vehicles that currently park illegally in the bike lane every day. Drivers and bicyclists swing out and pass the illegally-parked trucks, using the center turn lane. We can also lower the speed limit on Grant from 35 to 25 mph. It only takes ~40 more seconds to drive 1 mile at 25 mph than at 35 mph and it’s quieter, too3 . If
you don’t wish to lower the speed limit, please restore Grant back into the Local Travel Network plan so that we have a chance to win grant money to install more improvements. Bicycles can go on Grant, and golf carts can go on Rockefeller/Huntington.
Another serious issue is the lack of a legal eastbound crossing of Aviation. Redondo Beach students who live north of Artesia and attend Mira Costa High School can cross Aviation westbound on Robinson, but cannot return. Both Plant and Robinson are one-way streets heading westbound. If we want bicyclists to obey traffic laws, we need to enable them with supportive circulation design.
I also want us to pay attention to users of wheelchairs and walkers, or people pushing strollers and personal shopping carts. Seniors in motorized wheelchairs or sit-down scooters can use bike lanes. Sharp curb cutouts on sidewalks can topple them. They cannot use narrow, obstructed sidewalks. They are currently in the middle of our streets, mixed with cars. Alternatively, our seniors sit isolated at home.
3 https://www.nonoise.org/resource/trans/highway/spnoise.htm Consider a senior who lives in the Montecito and no longer drives. If the sidewalks are wide enough and they are able to cross streets in a light cycle, their idealized walkshed looks like a diamond. They can visit shops, the library, senior centers and take aqua-aerobics at the Mira Costa pool.
But, if they can’t cross the recently widened road, then their world shrinks. They can no longer reach senior aqua aerobics or listen to their grandchildren play sports or music at Mira Costa.
Single curb ramps on fast and busy streets put people at risk. For instance, the curb ramp at Artesia and Aviation forces seniors with walkers or in wheelchairs to push a button aligned with the crosswalk, then walk to the curb ramp and back onto the crosswalk. We can help seniors stay active if we provide double curb ramps on wide arterials that align with the crosswalks.
Diagonal curb ramps also force people using sidewalks down in front of traffic. As an adult who walks my bike onto the sidewalk to push a button, it’s difficult to roll down the ramp and then turn into the direction 45 degrees out of a gravitational well. It’s even more difficult for seniors in wheelchairs/walkers and children on bikes.
Traffic deaths have reached record highs, traffic has returned to pre-pandemic levels of congestion, and people complain about parking at nearly every city council meeting. The root cause of our traffic congestion, traffic violence and parking woes is simply too many (and too large cars), driven by careless motorists.
A robust Living Streets Program can help reverse these troubling developments and slow climate change as well. We won’t get outside funding unless we ask for it. We are eligible for federal Safe Routes to School, SCAG Active Transportation Program (ATP), Measure R Complete Streets and Measure M ATP and first/last mile funding. Let’s go big with our plans and get us some money! Grace Peng, PhD