Note: the original letter to Council called for passage of Item 16-E at last week’s meeting. Given that the item wasn’t heard and was pushed forward to next week’s meeting; I have updated letter below to reflect it’s new Item number, 16-K at next week’s meeting (agenda).
Support: Agenda Item 16-E (now 16-K)
Dear Mayor Davis and City Council Members,
Santa Monica Spoke and the Santa Monica Safe Streets Alliance express our full support of item 16E (16K). Santa Monica is
a leader in sustainability as well as active and climate-resilient transportation that enhances community well-being.
Additionally, Santa Monica’s public safety inevitably extends to safeguarding people riding bikes. Our community and
visitors love our bike infrastructure and our city’s commitment to invest in safer, protected and high visibility green
bike lanes. Such safe bike infrastructure encourages healthier active transportation options, provides a choice and
freedom to move around Santa Monica without driving a car and reduces GHG emissions helping to move us toward
our climate goals in an efficient manner. Resoundingly, research and experience show again and again the same thing:
protected bike lanes are good for everyone and reduce collisions and injuries for all road users–including drivers–by
30-50%.
Unfortunately, Santa Monica’s daily reality currently involves illegal blockages and incursions in our city’s bike lanes that
undermine our safety investments and cause conflicts, subjecting people on bikes to less safe and outright dangerous
conditions, jeopardizing our community residents, students, workers and neighbors as well as our visitors on bicycles.
Our community and visitors – particularly our most vulnerable– seniors and youth– are put at undue risk.
We applaud councilmembers Zwick and Torosis and Mayor Davis’s motion of item 16E (16K) that instructs staff to take
necessary actions that will make our streets safer. We support this motion to study and prioritize timely
implementation of measures to prevent dangerous motor vehicle incursions into our current and future bike
infrastructure.
We support the efforts to consider all options allowable to improve safety from motorized incursion in our bike
infrastructure investments. Those efforts should include but are not limited to:
– making sure we are leveraging ample, significant signage;
– the deployment of quick-build infrastructure to protect bike lanes;
– reorient street parking in the City’s existing and planned protected bikeway network whenever feasible;
– targeted curb management evaluation;
– space reallocation to reduce double parking in bike lanes;
– photo enforcement to the extent allowable by law;
– enhanced enforcement by parking and traffic officers; and
– identifying options for delivery and rideshare providers to educate drivers not to double park in bike lanes.
Santa Monica Spoke and the Santa Monica Safe Streets Alliance, a collaboration of local advocacy organizations and
community members that advocate for safe, livable and sustainable streets that are welcoming to everyone, urge you to
unanimously support item 16E (16K) for a safer Santa Monica!
Sincerely,
Cynthia Rose
Director, Santa Monica Spoke
SMSpoke.org
Cris Gutierrez
Co-Chair, Santa Monica Safe Street Alliance Co-Chair, Santa Monica Safe Streets Alliance
SaMoSafeStreets.org
