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| Downtown Liveable Streets Projects. |
At that moment it occurred to me that many times we (cycling advocates) get news piecemealed regarding individual projects that we forget to see the overall trends focusing instead on what one piece of the pie means to us. At that moment I realized just how the downtown area has changed and been made better for all of us with these improvements.
I rendered the projects on a Google Map below including the recently approved Hedding Street Project seen at the north end of the map. If you include the current paving project of the Guadalupe River Trail to Alviso along with the coming Bikeshare and Bike corrals, we are really starting to see all our hard work pay off resulting in a true change for the better.
They've Designed it, Approved it, Built it now its our turn to Use it!
Show your support to the City of San Jose for all of the wonderful improvements to the downtown area by getting out and using them.There is nothing worse to an elected official than supporting bike infrastructure from a noisy constituency; and then not seeing it used as promised.
So, if you can, write or call your elected official (see district map), and be sure to thank them. Even more dramatic, hand make (and hand-write) a thank you note and deliver it by bike. I have but together a list of the current city council with links to more pages for each district/councilmember.
Personalize your thank you by picking one of the projects you use the most and tell your elected officials how it makes your ride easier, safer, or faster. Stay positive, stay focused on the issue at hand, and end with a thank you to the elected official and their staff.
Once the see how many cyclists there are, how pleasant we are, and how appreciative we can be, they'll definitely want to work with us in the future.
Map of the Downtown Liveable Streets Project
View Downtown Liveable Streets Project in a larger map
What do the colors mean on the map?
ReplyDeleteThe map legend is at the bottom of the photo taken at city hall. I also replicated it in the legend on the map. If you click on "View Downtown Liveable Streets Project in a larger map" at the bottom of the embedded map it will take you to the "full" map.
DeleteBut its basically....
Red = Road Diets and Bike Lanes
Light Green = San Fernando Green Bikeways
Dark Green = Park/San Antonio Enhanced Bikeways
Blue = Streetscape Improvements
Orange = Santa Clara Street BRT
Yellow = Julian Street Saint James/ Couplet Conversion
Would love to see West San Carlos (not likely) and Steven's Creek (more likely) integrated into the project. Connecting Steven's Creek in particular would give SJ a major bicycling route from SJ to the foothills, which then connect just-about-everywhere.
ReplyDeletethe city of San Jose is currently doing work on San Carlos Street in downtown to make it more (mainly) pedestrian friendly. About ten years ago city installed a street scape project from the railroad overpass near Sunol reach almost to the 880 freeway, so I doubt there will be something in the works in the near future. Also there are so few business that would cater to bicycles it may not be economical for the city. So much of the businesses in that are are muffler shops, gas stations, car lots, and smog repair shops. Maybe that's why it is showing signs of blight on the west side.
ReplyDelete