The Redondo Beach City Council Tuesday night unanimously approved conceptual plans for the South Bay Bicycle Master Plan and the Vitality City Livability Plan.
Councilman Pat Aust stressed that the plans remain in their conceptual phases.
“By approving this, it doesn’t say we have to do everything that is in this plan. It is [just] a recommendation,” Aust said.
The two plans were presented to the council by Vitality City director Joel Spoonheim and Marissa Christiansen, the South Bay Initiative Director for the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition.
Christiansen underlined the benefits of the conceptual approval of the South Bay bike plan, which will allow the coalition to pursue grants and other funding sources for future implementation.
Julian Katz, director of the South Bay Bike Commission, said passage of the plan would be historic.
“This is a very unique plan,” Katz said. “Nobody has a seven-city bike master plan. We are leading the way in the South Bay.”
The proposed plan will expand Redondo Beach’s current bicycle system of 14.1 miles to 38.1 miles and could cost an estimated $1,895,000 for the expanded bicycle network. It would include bicycle paths, lanes, routes with sharrows and the encouragement of bicycle-friendly streets and facilities. The proposed master plan would add 213.8 miles of bikeable roadways to the 73.2 miles of bike-friendly roads that currently span the seven beach cities.
“There is a growing recognition saying that public health is impacted by our built environment,” said Jean Armbruster, director of the Policies for Livable Active Communities and Environments (PLACE) program. “Too many of our streets were designed for one thing – cars. By adopting the bike plan, Redondo Beach is taking an important step to address this plan and address the problems. The need to transform the built environment is a monumental challenge. Adopting the bicycle plan is an incredible beginning.”
Of particular concern to both to the public and the council was the construction of the proposed bicycle path on Harbor Drive. The plan combines the current seven foot bike lines on either side of the road into one 10 foot lane buffered by a five foot median and parked cars. No driving lanes would be lost, but concerns were expressed that the new configuration could slow car traffic.
But the overriding sentiment regarding the plan was one of excitement.
“This is an exciting time for a new bike plan,” said Jennifer Klausner, the executive director of the L.A. Bicycle Coalition. “More people are riding bikes than ever before and they are doing that for many reasons… The economy is a big one – when the economy is down, bikes make sense. People also have a strong sense of eco-consciousness. Lots of people are choosing bikes for environmental reasons… People are also incorporating bike riding into their day-to-day routine for health reasons. It gives people real opportunities to make healthy choices.”
The Vitality City Livability Plan is broader set of recommendations for changing the built environment in the beach cities to encourage walking and biking.
The plan, prepared by the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute headed by national expert Dan Burden, includes streetscaping suggestions and offers a number of ways to make areas more people-friendly – such as encouraging outdoor dining, narrowing some roads, reducing car speeds, and adding and improving crosswalks. It asks cities to adopt guidelines to achieve such changes and to develop a pedestrian master plan.
The Planning and Harbor Commission met and approved both conceptual plans in late September, with the recommendation that the plan be implemented in 10 years instead of the proposed 20. The City Council discussed the possibility of shortening the time frame to 12 years.
“If we can get it done in 12 years or less that’s excellent,” said Mayor Mike Gin.
“This is great plan. I find refreshing that there’s a whole different way of looking at things we see everyday,” said Councilman Matt Kilroy. “Obviously we’ve become such a car culture everything is geared and engineered to handle traffic and cars. This is turning that totally on its head saying ‘Hey, is this really where we want to be?’”
