From: Christine Culver
To: CityCouncilListPublic; City Council Public Comments Subject: [EXTERNAL] Jennings at-grade crossing
Date: Tuesday, April 9, 2024 10:14:46 AM
Dear City Council Members,
I write to you with strong support of reopening the at-grade crossing at Jennings Avenue.
Please reject option 3. This would be a travesty. As a City of Santa Rosa constituent I request you accept SMART’s agreement, but whatever you do, do not withdraw the CPUC permit application. The community is depending on you to make this at grade crossing happen.
Having unencumbered access across the rail line is essential in supporting your goals in Santa Rosa, and specifically this area of Coddingtown and the residents off of N. Dutton, in making our community more assessable and safe for people riding bicycles and walking.
In this critical time of addressing climate change, we need to raise up transportation options that get people out of cars.
This crossing has been a historically available crossing for pedestrians and bicycles for 111 years, it is time to re-open it. It is a much needed crossing. It’s a social justice issue of reconnecting a community with needed resources.
People are much more willing to use an a at-grade crossing, then an overhead crossing that adds distance, and perceived danger.
I strongly urge you to step up and do the right thing and make this happen. Thank you for all your work in pushing forward to make Santa Rosa a place where people feel safe walking and riding bikes.
Christine Culver
From: Laurel Chambers
To: City Council Public Comments
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Agenda Item 15.3
Date: Tuesday, April 9, 2024 10:23:58 AM
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Dear City Council,
As a founding member of the Sonoma County Vision Zero Advisory Committee, I am writing to share information from the Vision Zero Data Dashboard as it pertains to the crossing at Jennings Avenue. The Vision Zero Data Dashboard shows that the major streets surrounding the Jennings Ave. crossing are part of the High Injury Network, which are roads with an elevated risk of serious injury or fatal crashes based on an analysis of the frequency, severity, and mode of past crashes. Orange lines indicate the High Injury Network. Please note that Jennings Avenue is not part of the High Injury Network, indicating that it is a safer road to travel compared to Guerneville/Steele Lane, College Ave. or Dutton Ave. The black points on the map are places that residents indicated where they feel unsafe biking or walking.
As you can see from this map, the area surrounding the Jennings crossing includes Equity Priority Communities and areas of concentrated poverty, which are disproportionately affected by traffic safety concerns. While just under 10% of roads are in Equity Priority Communities, approximately 26% of fatal and injury crashed occur in these neighborhoods.
Laurel Chambers, MPH
Healthy Eating, Active Living Coordinator
Public Health Division
Cell: 408-204-0973
[email protected]
Additional information and data can be found on the Sonoma County Vision Zero website (https://scta.ca.gov/vz/) and Data Dashboard (https://scta.ca.gov/vz/#data-dashboard).
Thank you,
Laurel Chambers, MPH
Healthy Eating, Active Living Coordinator
Public Health Division
Cell: 408-204-0973
[email protected]
From: Sonia Byck
To: City Council Public Comments
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Agenda Item #15.3
Date: Tuesday, April 9, 2024 1:05:37 PM
Dear Mayor Rogers and Council members:
California Public Utilities Commission formally approved the Jennings Avenue Crossing in September of 2016 and now
it
has been over SEVEN YEARS since this approval.
Before the SMART train began operation, 100 cyclists and pedestrians crossed the tracks at Jennings daily to get to school, shopping, work, and the bus stop. Now there is a fence, and people must take a half-mile detour on either Steele Lane or College Avenue - two of the city's most
dangerous streets.
The city residents who stand to benefit most from the crossing include children walking to Helen Lehman Elementary School, as well as people walking to access SMART, work, shopping and the transit hub located at Coddingtown Mall. It would also benefit students traveling to other nearby schools,
including
Piner High School, Comstock Middle School, and Cesar
Chavez Elementary School.
Public support for the construction of the crossing was confirmed during the community meeting held at Helen
Lehman School in March 2023. At this meeting, neighborhood residents reiterated their strong support for this crossing.
Right
now, the train tracks divide the neighborhood, making it difficult for kids and adults to walk or ride to schools, shopping, and the bus mall without a detour on one of the most heavily trafficked streets in the city – which also lacks bike lanes.
A crossing at Jennings Avenue will improve public safety and provide a convenient way for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the SMART tracks, creating
a vital link in Santa Rosa's
transportation network.
Thank you for your time,
Sonia
Sonia Byck-Barwick
Lifelong Sonoma County Resident