Category Archives: Bike Action Plan

MANGo & Safe Routes to School at Samohi to City Council Tonight

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Best guess on timing for this evening:

© Cynthia Rose

 

Items presented to City Council
Tuesday, February 11th
Any thing can happen —
Watch the meeting http://www.smgov.net/video/

Santa Monica City Hall, 1685 Main Street, Rm 213

estimated time 8:00-9:30pm

8-B:    Review and Approve the Conceptual Design of the Samohi Safe Routes to School Project – recommendation that the City Council: approve the conceptual design for the Samohi Safe Routes to School project; and, direct staff  to complete construction drawings and release bids for construction for the Michigan Avenue/7th Street portion of the project. STAFF REPORT  

Support improving muti-modal circulation and safety around Santa Monica High School

estimated time 9:30pm-10:45

8-C:    Adoption of Michigan Avenue Neighborhood Greenway Concept Plan –recommendation that the City Council: approve the conceptual design of the Michigan Avenue Neighborhood Greenway; and, direct staff to pursue opportunities for priority and phased implementation through grants, community benefits, and capital projects. STAFF REPORT 

Support MANGo, Santa Monica’s and the regions first Neighborhood Greenway

Support Safe Routes to School Improvements at Samohi

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SRTS Samohi

Improved Multi-Modal Circulation and Safe Routes to School at Samohi – YES!!

Santa Monica Spoke is excited to support the Conceptual Designs presented for the Samohi Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Project. These improvements will improve all modes of circulation around Samohi and create a safer environment, encourage and prioritize healthy active transportation and help build on the leadership and momentum of the Solar Alliance Students and Bike it! Walk it!  We were pleased to participate in the process with City planners and consultants who worked closely with stakeholders to envision this plan.

After identifying the many conflicts and obstacles in the current  traffic circulation and personal safety conditions at Samohi the plan proposes many improvements in multi-modal circulation and infrastructure to encourage and prioritize walking, biking and public transit while improving vehicle circulation.  Currently the majority of students at Samohi are dropped off and picked up from school by their parents. Statistics suggest these trips are generating 3000-6000 vehicles per day (VPD) around Samohi and creating huge health, safety and traffic burdens as wells as contributing to the larger city wide issues of gridlock . The residents on Michigan Avenue and 7th endure heavy traffic burdens that spill over west of Lincoln onto Michigan Avenue that sees nearly 4300 VPD through to 11th.  This creates chaos and safety concerns for residents and kids with added safety issues for the kids that actively transporting themselves walking and biking.  Without the students who carpool, bus, walk or bike the situation here would certainly be even more untenable. With this SRTS project we can improve vehicle circulation and help prioritize these active kids with improved safety and infrastructure. With this project we will help encourage more students to choose active, healthier more sustainable transportation modes and help mitigate the health, safety and traffic problems.

Currently the closest thing to “bike friendly” access to Samohi is along Michigan Avenue east of Lincoln. But Michigan Avenue carries many of the hundreds and thousands of parents driving kids to school as well as cut-through traffic accessing the freeway. The Michigan Avenue Neighborhood Greenway (MANGo) supports SRTS at Samohi and can help improve the safety of students walking and biking through improved safety along Michigan Avenue west of Lincoln. By calming traffic on MANGo with ambitious traffic reduction goals we will help provide a safe link from Samohi to bike lanes on 11th, 14th and 17th Street and safer conditions for kids walking.  The SRTS plan also identifies needs for improvements on 4th Street, Olympic Boulevard and 7th Court that can be supported by the MANGo project. Outlined in MANGo on this corridor are wider sidewalks and a cycle track that will improve both pedestrian and bike safety and connections to Expo, the Civic Center, downtown and the beach. We will urge staff and council to prioritize these sections of the MANGo project for early implementation. These and other aspects of the SRTS project also build on the synergy of the City’s Bike Action Plan by connecting the bike network from south of Samohi and Pico via 6th and Michigan and 7th to MANGo.  As we we provide for SRTS to Samohi from the south we connect the bike network from Pico to the proposed MANGo and fill in a challenging hole in the current bike network with safe, easy access. The concepts in this plan on Michigan Avenue, 7th Street and Pico Boulevard will not only provide improved safety and encouragement for current and future generation of students walking, biking or taking the bus to school but help mitigate the traffic congestion, improve vehicle circulation, health and safety issues.  These proposed improvements are better for kids, parents, Samohi teachers and staff, nearby residents and the community.

We urge Council to approve staff recommendation and support the exemplary student leadership of the Solar Alliance students and the Bike it! Walk it! momentum they have built by providing our kids with the needed improvements to support healthy, active transportation and the ability to envision a more sustainable future.

You can send a support letter by Click here to email a letter
or
[emailpetition id=”1″]

Pledge YOUR Support for MANGo Today!

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Community EventPlease help us Support MANGo
with all the benefits and options!

MANGo will be presented to City Council, February 11th
Send a Letter of Support for MANGo Today!
AND
if you can …. Please come to Council Meeting and voice your support!
Great video on POP-UP MANGo!

Santa Monica City Hall Council Chambers, 1685 Main Street, Rm 213 - More info HERE.

Support Santa Monica’s and the region’s first Neighborhood Greenway: MANGo! with an email to Mayor Pam O’Connor, City Council, Commissioners and staff. Even with this AWESOME PROJECT there is opposition from those who still want vehicles prioritized over people, our health and safety. To help we have created some template letters you can use for inspiration or to cut and paste. We encourage you to customize with your personal comments or please feel free to simply cut and paste and email to the list provided below. You can see more about MANGo in the drop down menu here on our website. “Michigan Avenue Neighborhood Greenway”

Support letters: DON’T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME AT END OF LETTERS!
Read Santa Monica Spoke’s letter of support sent to City Council here
Santa Monica Spoke Supports Staff Recommendations letter here
If you live in the Pico Neighborhood we have a specific letter here.
If you have children we have a letter from that perspective here.

Here is the basic MANGo Support letter:

______________________________________________________

Dear Council Members,

I support the Michigan Avenue Neighborhood Greenway (MANGo) and urge you to approve the staff recommendations for this regionally important plan. I want a calmer Michigan avenue where it is safe and pleasant to walk and bike, and where this community can simply spend time outside enjoying their neighborhood and their neighbors.

Michigan Avenue has been adversely impacted for years by high levels of cut-through traffic rushing to and from the freeway and Samohi, further adding to the burden caused by the Santa Monica Freeway and the large boulevards that isolate this community. MANGo will create a safer calmer street and an inviting alternative east/west walking and biking connection to numerous destinations along its spine. This includes safe routes to many schools (including SMC & Samohi), Farmers Markets, parks and recreation, the Civic Center, beaches and the new Expo Line stations.

Through a very inclusive process MANGo planners have presented a variety of options to address the traffic and safety issues on Michigan Avenue, included are traffic reduction goals. I support establishing an ambitious project goal of less than 1500 vehicles per day on MANGo along with easy steps that measure if implementations are effective. If we need to do more to reach these goals, let’s make sure we are able to use the full range of traffic calming measures explored and outlined in the project to create safer street on Michigan Avenue, similar to those that have been used in other parts of Santa Monica. I believe this is a prudent course of action and important for the ultimate success of MANGo.

I realize it’s a bold and scary move to make a street that demands slower car traffic, and that there are editorialists and pockets of resistance who think that doing anything to impede auto circulation is a bad idea. We’ve suffered decades of an increasingly car dominant culture that has split the city in half, made the skies smoggy, and hurt and killed too many people. MANGo is a big step toward encouraging a change in that thinking of how we get around and can help set the tone for the next fifty years of the way Santa Monica works. What kind of city do you want? One for cars, or one for people? I hope you will choose the latter and cement your legacy as the city council that said yes to MANGo and everything that will follow.

Please support MANGo and make sure we set an ambitious target for reducing traffic on Michigan Avenue to less than 1500 vehicles per day and assure that we have all the tools at our disposal (including traffic diverters if needed) to achieve safer, healthier more active options for circulating in Santa Monica and regionally.

Sincerely,
Name
Address or neighborhood (optional)

______________________________________________________

Click here to email your letter : Add your content or use one of our letters above. Or you can copy this emails list: pam.oconnor@smgov.net, terry.oday@smgov.net, ted.winterer@smgov.net, kevin@mckeown.net, tony.vazquez@smgov.net, gleam.davis@smgov.net, robert.holbrook@smgov.net, Rod.Gould@smgov.net, David.Martin@smgov.net, Francie.Stefan@smgov.net, Jason.Kligier@smgov.net, Mango@smspoke.org, lucy.dyke@smgov.net, Jim_Ries@hotmail.com, parryj@gte.net, gnewbold@gmail.com, richard@richardmckinnon.com, jenniferfkennedy@gmail.com, suehimmelrich@gmail.com, andersonsmpc@yahoo.com, clerk@smgov.net, council@smgov.net, planning@smgov.net

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See MANGo Concept Plan Proposal

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MANGoMAP

Click image to view or download PDF document
Click here to view Staff Report
View the City’s project site here

PopUpMANGo Summary Infographic

MANGo to City Council February 11th

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MANGo Council crop

Save the date: February 11th
& get your typing fingers ready to Support MANGo.

MANGo is due to be presented to Santa Monica City Council a week from today, Tuesday February 11th. We are looking forward to seeing the Final Project Report & Presentation to Council on this major improvement to the Santa Monica Bike network and a long overdue investment in the Pico Neighborhood.

MANGo will create a safer calmer street and an inviting alternative east/west walking and biking connection to numerous destinations along its spine. This includes safe routes to many schools (SRTS, including SMC & Samohi), Farmers Markets, parks and recreation, the Civic Center, beaches and the new Expo Line stations.

Through a very inclusive process MANGo planners presented a variety of options to address the traffic and safety issues on Michigan Avenue, including reduced traffic goals. We are advocating for establishing an ambitious project goal of less than 1500 vehicles per day* on MANGo along with easy steps that measure if project implementations are effective, and a tiered implementation approach over time to meet goals.

You could say it is a bold and scary move to create a street that demands slower car traffic. There are editorials and pockets of resistance who think that doing anything to impede auto circulation is a bad idea. We have suffered decades of increasingly car dominant culture that has divided cities, created smoggy skies, and hurt and killed too many people. MANGo is a big step toward encouraging a change in that thinking of how we get around and can help set the tone for the next fifty years of the way Santa Monica works. What kind of city do you want? One for cars, or one for people? We hope our decision makers will choose the latter and cement their legacy as the City Council that said yes to MANGo and everything that will follow.

More on what you can do and how coming soon..

*Design guidelines from National Association of City and Transportation Officials (NACTO)