As of the last GREENways sent on March 19th, the Traffic and Safety Commission had voted unanimously for the complete alternative supported by AS&R to be included in the Mid-Solano Complete Streets Plan. This design has wider sidewalks, an uphill cycletrack or parking protected cycling lane, parallel car parking on the north side for safer cycling downhill, and maintains the current car parking inventory.
The next night the Climate Action Committee unanimously rejected the primary design put forward by the consultant to widen the sidewalks a bit and add more car parking, even though Albany’s own parking study adopted by the Council in 2017 recommends against doing so. The Committee also unanimously voted in favor of the design supported by AS&R. This was all particularly good news because this Committee was not even planned to consider the Mid-Solano plan as of late February, which was exceedingly odd given that the majority of Albany’s greenhouse pollution results from transportation.
As a result of the Climate Action Committee’s vote, the prospective schedule to have the Council adopt the consultant’s plan on April 15th has completely fallen apart. Staff first relayed that the Council’s consideration would be delayed until its second May meeting. Late last week staff updated this relaying that over the next two weeks staff and the consultant would be developing a new schedule including a public process around the AS&R-supported alternative. This suggests the Plan will not go to Council until June at the earliest and most likely later than that.
Meanwhile, enjoy the graph below showing the results of one study regarding how much people spend locally by different transportation mode. This graph contributed to the Economic Development Committee continuing consideration of the mid-Solano Plan to date uncertain to allow itself more time for study when faced with the question of more car parking or possibly more business revenue by dedicated space to other modes.
I see that this shows shopping as “convenience stores” .
Does that mean 7-11 and the liquor stores and similar or does it include the all the other types of shopping?
Hi Robby
That is odd that convenience stores were separated out. But fear not, the principle is the same!
There have been many studies, https://www.citylab.com/solutions/2015/03/the-complete-business-case-for-converting-street-parking-into-bike-lanes/387595/ , from Davis to the East Village to Vancouver to Ireland to New Zealand to Los Angeles to the Pacific NW, showing that customers arriving by bike spend as much as or more than customers arriving by car.
Your gallery/store is on Albany’s “Main Street,” across the street from a regional bike/ped trail. If it’s more comfortable to ride and walk by, people can, do and will stop in!
If you’re interested in a longer read, this document has great information about how protected bike lanes enhance business http://www.albanystrollroll.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Protected_Bike_Lanes_Mean_Business.pdf