The Bay Area is a cradle of environmentalism and a region with a rich trove of health and medical research and resources. In this blog, we’ll report on the deepening understanding of how the places we inhabit and the lifestyles we adopt contribute to our own health and the health of our communities.
Palo Alto could soon feature even more Lycra shorts: The city on Tuesday night announced a plan to revamp existing bike trails and add new ones. The goal of the so-called Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan is to double the number of commutes made by bike by 2020, the Palo Alto Weekly reported.
The 130-page plan, produced for the city by the transit-planning firm Alta Planning and Design, involves creating a network of bike paths, trails and bike-friendly streets throughout the city. It would also add three or more bike boulevards — shared roadways on low-traffic streets indicated by signs and painted markings.
The city passed a strategic plan for expanding bicycling in 2003, but much of it was never implemented due to a lack of funding and staffing.
Jaime Rodriguez, Palo Alto's chief transportation official, told The Bay Citizen that this plan has a better chance of succeeding because the department is now well-staffed and several of the projects are already underway.
A new bike-parking rack is scheduled to be installed downtown Thursday; the city plans to improve its Channing Avenue bike lane by this fall; and the first phase of one of the new bike boulevards is scheduled to be completed by December.
© The Bay Citizen, 2012
