The Anholm Bikeway Design Charrette takes place this Thursday May 10th from 6:00PM to 8:00PM at the City/County Library, 995 Palm Street in SLO. (Lingo alert! A charette is an intensive planning session where citizens, designers and others collaborate on a vision for development. It provides a forum for ideas and offers the unique advantage of giving immediate feedback to the planners/designers/etc.)
SLO City Council asked staff to reach out to the community to develop plans which include diverters on Broad Street and traffic calming devices along the peripheral streets in an effort to shift vehicle traffic out of the neighborhood and onto Santa Rosa. This is your opportunity to suggest concepts to be considered in the Anholm Bikeway Plan.
Bike SLO County is asking for members in the bike community to come join in the workshop and provide a voice in support of safe routes for vulnerable roadway users and to increase ridership within our city. We anticipate many vocal residents who are opposed to any significant change to the roadways to show up and argue against any diverters, changes to circulation, or removal of parking. Bike SLO County needs you to come out and provide constructive suggestions that align with the City’s modal shift goal, climate action plan, and bike master plan. We believe that the best way to attract new riders is to provide more bicycle facilities like bike boulevards and protected bike lanes. Protected bike lanes have been discussed thoroughly and are considered the backup option if the bike boulevard approach is not received well or not likely to meet the city’s goals. This workshop will only focus on developing ideas for a bike boulevard with traffic calming and we want your to help shape that into something the bike community can support.
The staff will take the suggestions developed during the workshop to the Active Transpiration Committee (formally Bike Advisory Committee) on May 17th. This will be another opportunity to voice your support. Staff will then continue to refine the plans for approval from the Planning Commission in July and from SLO City Council in August.