San Jose City Council Votes to create a key east/west corridor on Hedding St.



Councilmember Sam Liccardo (l)
and Hans Larsen-
SJ Dept. of Transportation Director
photo: SJ DOT

Yesterday in an evening council session in San Jose the council voted in favor of creating key east/west corridors on Hedding Street and Ocala Ave. The vote was after three amendments were added in a memo submitted by Councilmembers Sam Liccardo, Rose Herrera and Xavier Campos. The motion put forward by the downtown Councilmember Liccardo and seconded by Herrera was unanimously approved with Counilmember Pete Constant absent last evening.

After Councilmember Liccardo put forward the motion, over 20 public speakers spoke in favor of the bicycle lanes. Only five spoke out against the motion including one cabdriver who made some very outlandish claims that the existing bike lane improvements on 10th and 11th cause extreme delays amounting to over $1,600 in losses monthly to his business. I found it odd since the bike lanes have only been completed and fully operational for only two weeks (San Jose opens bike lanes, offers plans for bicycle, pedestrian safe downtown -August 16,2012).

Most of the cyclists showed up to show support after a skewed article appeared in the San Jose Mercury News the morning after a public meeting was held at the Joyce Ellington Library in Japantown. The article was featured in a popular post on the Cyclelicious website.



Hedding St. looking east towards
the County Administration bldg.
Photo: Richard Massoner/Cyclelicious



Councilmembers Liccardo, Herrera, Campos, Kalra, Oliverio and Nguyen highlighted their yes votes with additional comments. Councilmember Herrera who has been a supporter of cycling in the past comment how the lanes proposed on Ocala and Hedding along with this month's new downtown lanes "reflects our vision,and on living out our values by putting words into action."

Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen comment how she has noticed on her way to the office that there appeared to be less speeding on the one way streets such as 3rd, 4th, 10th and 11th. She mentioned that this will help with all users sharing the road.

Speakers who spoke in favor of the bike lanes included mothers, bike commuters, new cyclists, advocates, and participants in San Jose Bike Party. It is great to see participants of San Jose Bike Party starting to stand up publicly in favor of increased cycling infrastructure. This months ride featured the new buffered bike lanes on 10th Street. According to Manuel Pineda - Deputy Director of San Jose DOT workis expected to begin in October.