Just how committed the Santa Rosa City Council is to getting people out of their cars will be put to the test Tuesday when it considers a plan to cut vehicle traffic on Santa Rosa Avenue to make room for trees, bike lanes and wider sidewalks.
The council is being asked to choose between two versions of a plan to transform about a half-mile stretch of Santa Rosa Avenue between the Highway 12 overpass and Sonoma Avenue.
Following a series of meetings with neighbors, city planners are proposing a redesign of the busy roadway that would cut the number of travel lanes in half, from four to two. Instead of two lanes in each direction, the Santa Rosa Avenue Corridor Plan calls for one lane in each direction with a median and turning lanes in the center.
A back-up option calls for keeping all four travel lanes and adding bike lanes and upgrading sidewalks and crosswalks.
Senior Planner Peter Brown said the recommended changes reflect the desires of area residents for a safer, more pedestrian friendly and attractive streetscape that limits vehicle traffic.
"Their point was, &‘we've been planning for the single occupant automobile for the past 50 years, can we please do something that's multi-modal? Can we please do something that looks to the future?'" Brown said.
The plan was funded through an $80,000 grant from Caltrans that urged a higher level of community input than occurs with other projects, Brown said. It also envisions a future that is less car-centric and more encouraging of public transportation projects, such as the future SMART commuter rail line, Brown said.
"They want to see connections from the neighborhoods to the SMART station without using the automobile," Brown said.
But cutting in half the number of travel lanes on one of city's major thoroughfares has city transit and traffic officials warning that the residents should be careful what they wish for.
They caution that the resulting traffic jams could cause drivers to cut through neighborhoods.
City traffic engineer Robert Sprinkle said he agrees with the concept of reducing the number of cars on the road, but isn't sure this is the best way to go about it.
"If it's going to degrade the neighborhood's quality life because traffic is going to divert through the neighborhood, then I see that as kind of a conflict," Sprinkle said.
The impact on the city's bus services is another major concern. If buses take longer to get through that area, then the number of bus trips will drop, lowering the service level, said Mona Babauta, deputy director of transit and parking.
"I am all for improved pedestrian and bicycle facilities, but alternative B achieves these same goals," Babauta said, referring to the four-lane option.
Julliard Park neighborhood resident Karen Macken disagrees. It angers her to hear that bus officials are trying to override the hard work residents have put into the plan.
"I think it's sad if the bus system hijacks what the majority voted for, which was a transformation of this area," said Macken, a 42-year-old mother of two young children.
Bob Ruiz, a resident of the Burbank Gardens neighborhood, said the conflict is an easy one to understand but difficult to resolve. "The biggest issue for me and many others is the city is planning for today instead of planning for tomorrow," he said.
A large number of residents are planning to attend the meeting to let the council know how they feel, he said.
A similar plan has been adopted for Mendocino Avenue, the northern extension of Santa Rosa Avenue, but that stretch included retention of all four lanes, Brown said. That's because that area gets more traffic, 30,000 cars per day.
The stretch of Santa Rosa Avenue, however, receives 22,500 trips, which is "on the cusp" of being enough to make the project viable, he said.
Brown said he called for the council to give him some direction specifically because the other city departments had lodged objections to the two-lane option, he said.
He called the issue a complicated one and "an interesting urban planning conundrum."
"The council is in for a treat tomorrow," he said.
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