District 1 Traffic Calming Meeting
Date: Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Location: Cypress Senior Center- 403 S. Cypress Ave., San José

On October 30, 2007, there will be a Traffic Calming Community Meeting for District 1 Residents. This meeting was scheduled after the Council voted unanimously to hold citywide traffic calming meetings to gather input that will be used to guide updates to San José’s Traffic Calming Policy.

This meeting will be overseen by Council member Pierluigi Oliverio, Jim Helmer (Director of the Department of Transportation), Laura Wells of the Department of Transportation, and Captain Diane Urban and Lieutenant Jeff Smith from San José Police Department.

We hope to get your thoughts to ensure that our updated Traffic Calming Policy is able to serve the public in a consistent and fair manner. Once all of the community meetings are conducted, recommended changes to the Traffic Calming Policy will be presented to Council December.

Hope to see you there, your input is valuable!

The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition has been working hard to bring about more adult bicyclist education courses. The demand for our courses has been fantastic-we now have a waiting list for the next course, but we haven’t yet found a sponsor. The City of Mountain View led the way by funding our course in August, and now we’re looking for additional cities that might be interested in financing some bicyclist education. If you’d like to see us able to offer more classes, please talk with your city’s Council or the Bicycle Coordinator in the Transportation Department about it.

The official public comment session for new street space allocation policies won’t take place at the Sunnyvale BPAC meeting this Thursday as previously announced, but will occur at a separate meeting to be scheduled soon. Nonetheless, you’re still welcome to attend Thursday’s meeting to share your thoughts and get them on the record (it will almost surely be far less crowded as well!). You can also send your comments to <[email protected]>. So please stay tuned for the announcement of the public comment meeting, and take every opportunity to express your support for these important policies!

This September, SVBC and the Friends of the Guadalupe River Parks and Gardens teamed up with the City of San Jose to do a trail count on the Guadalupe River Trail. Guess what we found? A whole lot of people are using that trail!

One weekday 12 hour count showed 959 trail users. A full 65% of those were on bikes.

A big thank you to the volunteers that made the count possible, and also to the leadership of City of San Jose trails staff. This will be an annual count, so if you didn’t have a chance to help out this year, consider participating next year.

What are we going to do with this information? You got it-SVBC is pushing for more trail funding, better maintenance programs, and fewer trail closures! These trails are commute routes for cyclists and need to be treated as such. Interested in getting involved? Email [email protected] to find out how you can participate.

The bill must be signed by Sunday, October 14!

AB57 provides a framework for future funding and will protect existing SR2S funds. If the Governor does not sign this bill, it will effect funding for infrastructure, education, and encouragement programs centered on schools in Silicon Valley.

AB57 will: 1) enable $52 million in existing state SR2S funding to be spent after January 1, 2008 (the date that the current SR2S bill expires), 2) allow for federal SR2S funds to be swapped for state funds (easing administration burdens on local agencies), and 3) create a framework for state SRTS funding to be included in the state budget.

Call the Governor’s office: (916-445-2841) and Fax: (916-445-4633). For more info, visit the Safe Routes to School National Partnership.

Come to the next Sunnyvale BPAC meeting on October 18.
Public comments will be collected regarding proposed new city policies for allocating street space among various users. By making safety of all transportation users the highest priority, these policies will put cyclists in a much better position to argue that bike facilities should be given preference for limited street space over non-transportation uses such as on-street parking.

To succeed in getting these policies adopted, we must insure the public comments that will be sent to the council are not dominated by those who feel their convenience is more important than our safety.

Join us:
October 18 at 6:30pm
Sunnyvale City Hall
456 W Olive Avenue (between Mathilda and Pastoria), across from the library.

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