Dear Planning Commission, Planning Department and City Council, I just received the updated plans for Reimagining the Core and have the following feedback.
1) It is not practical to route Bike Lanes through downtown via Main Street and Petaluma Blvd. There are simply too many cars. It is better to connect the JRT through Morris Street to Eddie Lane to the High School Road entrance to the JRT. People wanting to go downtown could go Morris Street to McKinley to the town plaza. Morris Street should become a bike and pedestrian pathway linking the JRT to the Laguna and downtown and the High School Road JRT link.
2) The plan must accommodate the 1200 students that attend Analy High School. There are easily 800 cars that come in and out of Sebastopol every single school day. This creates traffic on Highway 12, Petaluma Blvd, High School Road and Main Street.
There are new drivers and young drivers. The plan must have a safe and efficient way to move school traffic from Highway 12 and Highway 116 to Analy. 3) Move bike lanes off of Petaluma Blvd. Very few people (less than 15 per month) use the bike lanes on Petaluma BLVD. The majority of the local community supports the Apple Blossom and Gravenstien separated bike/pedestrian pathways. Use these alternatives to 116 bike lanes.
4) No bike lanes around the town square or down Main Street. There is simply too much congestion to support bike lanes. Direct bikes to Morris Street or to cross and connect with Ives. If you connect bicycles with Ives, Ives needs to have a separate bike lane from the pedestrian pathway.
Thank you,
Kate Haug