November 19 Meeting

Extension to Pedestrian and Bikeway Trails
Ray Kuzbari, Transportation Manager for the City of Concord reported that the Contra Costa Transit Authority has approved $900k of funding for a proposal to extend Pedestrian and Bikeway Trails in Monument Corridor (see map). The improvements include signage, striping, paving, benches and call boxes.

This is "joyous news" says Marry Lou. She would like to call it the "Stan Hansen Trail".

The City Council will need to pass a resolution to send to the CCTA. Ray says for the Transportation Action Team to come to the City Council meeting on Monday December 7 at 6:30 PM and make a Public Comment about the trails extension. He says to "have a crowd there" and with a show of hands demonstrate community support for the new trails.

Youth Art Contest Promotes Route 8
Cindy Dahlgren of the County Connection was presented with a dozen drawings of the Route 8 Bus produced for an art contest organized by the Youth and Volunteer Action Team. Cindy will hang the drawings in her office. The winners Diego, Mayra and Luis will receive prizes.

Meeting on September 17

Concord Community Reuse Project
Draft Revised Environmental Impact Report (DEIR)
Edi Birsan made a presentation on his research of the DEIR. In Chapter 4 "Transportation", Figure 4-14 shows major street improvements which include upper Monument Boulevard widened to 6 lanes and Meadow Lane widened to 4 lanes (see number 15 and 16 on map). How can Meadow Lane be widened with out eminent domain of single family residences? The public review comment period was extended and now ends October 26, 2009 at 5 p.m.!

Monument Redevelopment Forum
An upcoming public meeting on a date to be determined will follow up on the development of Urban Design Guidelines.

City of Richmond's Draft General Plan
Community Health and Wellness Element
This is a brilliant GP element that we should consider for Concord's GP. Of particular interest is Goal HW4 "Encourage Safe and Convenient Public Transit and Active Circulation Options". Here are the policies:

HW4.1 Expanded and Affordable Public Transit
HW4.2 Enhanced and Accessible Paratransit
HW4.3 Safe and Convenient Walking and Bicycling
HW4.4 Safety and Accessibility
HW4.5 Complete Streets

Concord Trails Master Plan

Here is some information on the Concord Trails Master Plan that was presented by Ray Kuzbari that I missed in the August 20 meeting:

• A new Concord Trails Plan will be adopted by the City Council in October, and will be included in Concord’s General Plan.
• Bicycle trails paralleling Monument Blvd. are planned in the Concord Trails plan.
• One route will be a Class III Bike Connection Trail from Sunshine Drive to Linden Drive which connects to a Class II Bike Lane from Walter Way to Mohr Lane and the Iron Horse Regional Trail.

Meeting on August 20

Today's guests include Joni Carlson of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition , Cindy Dahlgren of the County Connection and Ray Kuzbari, Transportation Manager for the City of Concord. Joni is the official representative of the EBBC to our TAT. Ray hopes the Pedestrian Infrastructure Improvement Project will begin construction in the fall. Caltrans funding is allocated but not yet available.

Joni points out to Ray that in the Contra Costa Countywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan it has Monument Blvd as a bike route. Ray thinks this is a mistake, and he has submitted the city's Trails Master Plan to the CCTA. (I have reproduced portions of the two maps in the June 1 draft of the CBPP. The first map shows the proposed Monument Blvd bikeway by CCC in red and by MTC in light blue. The other map shows the existing Class III bike routes in orange on Sunshine Dr and Meadow Ln.)

Cindy says the Route 8 bus has been advertised in many ways more than any other route. To get more people to ride Route 8, Luz and Hanna tried it. Also, the kids attending our meeting from the Youth and Volunteer Action Team have tried it. Laura-Jean says, "Route 8 is great!" People didn't know that Route 8 bus would come to your door. Call the day before to have it pick you up. (For your information, I have reproduced the Riders Guide / Guía del Viajero.) Cindy reminds us the funding quits in June 2010. We brainstormed ways for how Monument Blvd businesses could promote the Route 8 bus.

Meeting on July 16

We warmly welcomed Brad Beck, Senior Transportation Planner for Contra Costa Transit Authority and Ray Kazbari, Transportation Manager for City of Concord, and we introduced our selves. Brad's introduction of himself included an explanation of what the CCTA does: it distributes sales tax money to transportation projects undertaken by cities and the county. We had a lively discussion on the Countywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. Kathy Renfrow questioned why Monument Blvd. was not included on the bicycle route plan. The answer is too much traffic and not enough right-of-way for bicycle lanes on streets such as Monument and Clayton. The meeting ran out of time and we will continue the discussion at our next meeting.

Monument Boulevard Urban Design Plan and Design Guideline

I spoke in favor of the proposed plan at the Concord City Council meeting on July 6. It's so good it should be referred to in related plans: CCTA's 2009 Countywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan Update, and City of Concord's Economic Vitality Strategy Update.

Read the July 9 Contra Costa Times article "Monument redevelopment plans pit traffic needs against community interests", and The Concordian article on page 32 "Vision for Monument Corridor taking shape".

Countywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan (CBPP) 2009 Update

The Draft 2009 Countywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan is now available for review and comment. (I've attended the June 29 Public Workshop on the 2009 CBPP.) The update addresses MTC's "routine accommodation" policy, where Measure J explicitly supports the idea that bicycle and pedestrian needs should be routinely accommodated in projects funded with Measure J revenues.

Take a look at the plan at http://www.ccta.net/EN/main/bike/cbpp.html, and send your comments and suggestions to Brad Beck, Senior Transportation Planner.