A big win for safer streets
You may recall our work to ensure that future re-striping projects would follow the City's street standards, especially regarding lane widths (see previous newsletter). On June 19th we spoke at the City Council, and the Council listened. Thanks to our comments, they instructed staff to follow Street Standards on any re-striping projects. They also offered to include re-striping in the city's budget (it had been cut out since 2009).
This decision has the potential to make our streets safer for all users. Now we will continue to work with City Council and Public Works to ensure that they follow through with these good intentions.
Bike Davis Supports Paid Car Parking in Downtown Davis
Downtown doesn't have a car parking supply problem, it has a parking management problem.
The City is planning to convert about 20% of the downtown Davis car parking spaces into paid parking, to relieve pressure on the most-coveted spaces and to reduce the number of cars circling downtown to find parking.
Bike Davis agrees that this plan will help better manage car parking in downtown for the benefit of all. We support the City's plan and have been encouraging the City to reinvest the parking revenue into more maintenance and beautification of downtown. The neighborhood of Old Pasadena in southern California has employed such a scheme for more than two decades, and the influx of funding helped transform their downtown from economically struggling area to a vibrant entertainment district.
To get more details on the downtown car parking plan, read this blog post, written by the City Public Works Department. If you support reinvesting meter revenue into downtown, let City Council know.