M E M O R A N D U M
PROGRAM AND POLICY DEVELOPMENT DIVISION
LAND USE AND TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT
CITY OF SANTA MONICA
DATE: May 18, 1994
TO: The Planning Commission
FROM: Program and Policy Development Division Staff
SUBJECT: Recommendation that the Planning Commission Conduct a
Public Hearing and Recommend to the City Council the
Adoption of the Bicycle Master Plan and Certification of
the Environmental Impact Report
INTRODUCTION
This staff report recommends that the Planning Commission conduct
a public hearing and recommend to the City Council the adoption of
the Bicycle Master Plan and certification of the Environmental
Impact Report (EIR). If the Planning Commission recommends
approval of the Bicycle Master Plan, staff will return to the
Commission with a recommendation to amend the Land Use and
Circulation Element of the General Plan to incorporate the route
network.
BACKGROUND
The City proposed Bicycle Master Plan facilitates and encourages
bicycle ridership in Santa Monica. The Plan provides a wide
variety of facility improvements and ongoing programs to facilitate
the use of bikes for both transportation and recreation purposes.
Many factors motivated this study, including concerns over air
pollution, traffic, the desire for an increase in bicycle commuters
through the City's adopted Transportation Management Plan, and
enhanced recreational opportunities. An adopted Plan would also
assist the City in meeting the regional requirements of the
Congestion Management Plan and Air Quality Management Plan. City
residents benefit from this plan because bicycle ridership:
o Is pollution free
o Is energy-efficient
o Offers point-to-point flexibility
o Offers flexibility of departure time
o Is enjoyable
o Relieves stress and promotes health
o Is quiet
o Consumes little space
o Is economical
Barriers to bicycle use currently exist within the City, with some
people perceiving that it is dangerous to ride in the streets,
while others forego the bicycle for lack of secure parking.
This plan addresses the existing barriers. The Plan incorporates
a bicycle route network, public and employment related bicycle
parking, an education and awareness campaign, and other minor
facility improvements and programs. By carrying out the Plan,
Santa Monica will become a safer, more convenient place to bicycle
for transportation and recreation purposes.
HISTORY OF BICYCLE MASTER PLAN
The development of the Draft Bicycle Master Plan began with a
community scoping meeting on May 16, 1991. The meeting was held to
gather public input on issues such as where new bike routes are
needed, where public bicycle parking is inadequate, what kind of
amenities are important to encourage employees to ride to work, and
how to address safety, awareness, and promote the use of bicycles
in the City. At that scoping meeting it was suggested that the
Plan address the following existing problems:
o East/west routes that parallel arterials have
frequent stop signs
o There are no north/south bike routes other than the
beach bike path
o Existing bike routes lack connectivity and
relationship to destinations
o Existing bike racks at City parks are inadequate
After the workshop, the original Draft Bicycle Master Plan was
developed with a proposed bicycle route network, public and
employment related bicycle parking, an education and awareness
campaign, and other facility improvements and programs.
The bike route network proposed in all of the Plan's versions is
determined to be an inter-connected network of routes to and from
significant destination/origin points. These points include:
o Public schools
o Santa Monica College
o Santa Monica Pier
o Third Street Promenade
o Residential areas
o Main street/Ocean Park
o Beaches
o Palisades Park
o Pacific Coast Bike Route (Beach Bike Path)
o Downtown Businesses
o Parks
o Points outside the City, like UCLA
The originally proposed bicycle route network consisted of the
following route classifications:
o Class I Bikeways (Bike Paths) - completely separate
bicycles from motor vehicles. The beach bike path
is a Class I bikeway. There are few places in the
City where space is available for new bike paths.
o Class II Bikeways (Bike Lanes) - dedicated lanes on
existing roadways for bicycles.
o Class III Bikeways (Bike Routes) - signed routes
where bicyclists share the streets with motorists.
o Bicycle Boulevards - These were originally proposed
in the Bicycle Master Plan, but have since been
eliminated. The bicycle boulevards were
recommended on certain, primarily residential
streets in which barriers are placed approximately
every six blocks to discourage automobile through
traffic. Through automobile traffic is diverted to
parallel streets, leaving only local traffic and
bicycles on the bicycle boulevards.
A comprehensive public bicycle parking plan is also proposed to
provide bicycle parking in all commercial and retail zones in the
City, in front of pubic buildings and in recreation areas. Secure
bicycle parking would also be required in new work sites. The Plan
proposes to use a standardized parking device for easy recognition
and use throughout the City. Bicycle park-and-ride stations will
provide secure parking at bus stops.
Accompanying the facility improvements is an education and
awareness campaign. Safety programs would teach students from
elementary school through college, employees working in Santa
Monica, and other adults to ride safely. The City would produce a
bicycle map with numbered routes, parking locations, and safety
information as an easy reference document for bicyclists. A
promotional campaign would educate bicyclists as well as motorists
about bicycle and traffic safety. Santa Monica would also make
facility improvements such as replacing drainage grates and paving
over railroad track crossings.
The Plan is proposed to be financed through a variety of federal,
state, county and local sources dedicated for bicycle use only. No
City General Fund monies will be used.
Originally Proposed Modifications
The following outlines the major modifications which were
originally proposed to implement the original Draft Bicycle Master
Plan:
o Bicycle Boulevards were recommended on:
Alta Avenue
Washington Avenue
Arizona Avenue
Pearl Street
Ashland Avenue
Portions of Yale/Stewart/Twenty-Eighth
o Class II bike lanes were recommended on numerous
streets. On Seventh, Eleventh and Seventeenth
streets, the improvements needed to implement these
Class II routes from San Vicente to the southern
City limits would include:
- Removal of on-street parking on one side
of the street in some single family
neighborhoods north of Montana and in
Sunset Park where there is less demand
for street parking.
- Roadway widening by narrowing portions of
the parkway. This would occur on
Eleventh and Seventeenth Streets between
Montana Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, on
Seventeenth Street between the freeway
and Pico Boulevard, and on Ocean Park
Boulevard between Lincoln Boulevard and
Eleventh Street.
- Removal of two-way left turn lanes in the
mid-block sections on Seventh, Eleventh
and Seventeenth Streets between Wilshire
and Olympic Boulevards. Left turn lanes
at intersections would not be removed.
o Other Class II bike lanes were recommended that
would require:
- Restriping of existing streets to narrow
the center lane and provide more room in
the curb lane so that a bike lane may be
added.
- Merely striping a bike lane since
sufficient road width exists.
o The Class III bike routes would be incorporated
only through the proper signage of the routes.
o Bicycle parking was recommended throughout the
downtown and commercial areas of the City and at
City parks and beaches. The parking in the
commercial areas would be provided mainly through
parking meter mounts, which would provide secure
bicycle parking on a parking meter. These parking
meter mounts were proposed for every two or three
parking meters in the parking districts. Where
parking meters do not exist, the City standard bike
rack would be used.
o The Plan proposed the creation of park-and-ride
stations for bicycle commuters who wish to use the
longer distance advantages of transit. Both short-
term bike racks and long-term bike lockers would be
provided at these locations.
o The Plan proposed bicycle parking standards for new
development, generally as a percentage of
automobile parking requirements.
o Some improvements were recommended as long-term
improvements. These included the addition of a
bicycle bridge over the Santa Monica Freeway near
Seventh Street, the widening of the Fourth Street
Bridge over the freeway (this could be done in
coordination with the Civic Center Master Plan),
and the addition of a bike ramp from the Santa
Monica Pier to the beach bike path.
PUBLIC PROCESS
In November, 1991 copies of the Draft Bicycle Master Plan were made
available to the public for purchase. A public workshop was held
December 5, 1991 to present the Draft Plan and receive public
comments. Notification of the availability of the Plan and the
public hearing before the Planning Commission was mailed to over
500 interested people, including those present at the previous
workshops on the Bicycle Master Plan.
The City's Task Force on the Environment reviewed the Plan at its
December 16, 1991 meeting and approved the Draft Bicycle Master
Plan in concept with comments.
The Planning Commission held a public hearing and reviewed the
original Draft Bicycle Master Plan at its February 19, 1992 meeting
with numerous comments, including
o There should be signalized crossings at Ashland/Twenty-
Third Street and at Washington/Twenty-Sixth Street (in
association with the bike boulevards).
o Are the bicycle boulevards necessary?
o Why isn't there an east/west route to the Colorado Place
and Watergarden work center? Couldn't Broadway be
narrowed to two lanes to accommodate bicycle lanes?
o Don't widen streets for a bike lane if it requires the
removal of mature trees.
o The Exposition right-of-way should be used either as a
long-term or interim bicycle facility.
o Do additional community outreach.
In May, 1992, two additional public workshops were held by City
staff, one in the north of Wilshire area of the City, and the other
in the Sunset Park neighborhood.
REVISED JULY, 1992 DRAFT PLAN
Following the public comments and comments from the Planning
Commission and Task Force on the Environment, staff proposed that
the Council adopt a revised Draft Bicycle Master Plan for study in
an EIR. Following comments by the City Council, the revised Plan
included:
o Only Class III routes on Seventeenth, Eleventh and
Seventh Streets between San Vicente and Montana.
o Removal of all bicycle boulevards except for Pearl and
Washington. Conduct additional public outreach along
those two routes to assess community support.
o) Restripe Broadway to one lane in each direction with a
two-way turn median and a bike lane between Lincoln and
Twenty-Sixth Street. This is similar to the restriping
that has occurred on Main Street, and would provide
improved bicycle access between downtown and the special
office district. Similar restriping is already proposed
on Broadway between Twenty-Sixth and Centinela as part of
the Mid-City area neighborhood traffic plan.
o) The Parking and Traffic Division is considering different
alternatives for improving traffic in the downtown area.
As part of that discussion, a system of one-way streets
in the downtown area should be considered, with the
inclusion of bike lanes. This could include one-way
couplets with 5th and 2nd Street or 5th and 4th Street,
and one-way couplets with Broadway and Colorado.
After the City Council meetings, public workshops were held
surrounding the proposed bicycle boulevards on Pearl Street and
Washington Avenue. Residents were notified through advertisements
in the newspaper, mailing lists of residents in the area, and
flyers distributed in a two block radius around the length of the
proposed boulevards. Turnout to both sets of workshops was light,
with little support or opposition expressed on the bicycle
boulevard. Since the Council's direction was to ascertain the
support for bicycle boulevards, and there did not appear to be
widespread support, the proposed project in the EIR studied these
streets as Class III routes. An alternative to the project in the
EIR analyzed these streets as bicycle boulevards.
PROPOSED BICYCLE MASTER PLAN
After these community meeting, public hearings, and comments from
the Task Force on the Environment, Planning Commission, and City
Council, the proposed Bicycle Master Plan presented to the Planning
Commission at this time includes the following elements:
o An extensive bicycle route network throughout the City,
including: Class II routes on portions of 4th, 7th,
11th, 17th, Arizona, Broadway and Pearl, and Class III
routes on portions of 7th, 11th, 17th, Yale/Stewart,
Washington, Ashland and Pearl. The proposed Class I
bicycle paths in the Civic Center Specific Plan have been
included in the Plan and replace some previous proposals
for the area. See Attachment A for a map of the planned
network.
o Improvements necessary to implement these routes include
removal of the mid-block two-way left turn lane on 7th,
11th and 17th streets from Wilshire to the Santa Monica
Freeway, restriping of Broadway from Lincoln to 26th
Street to one auto lane in each direction with turn lanes
and bicycle lanes (similar to Main Street restriping),
and striping of streets were sufficient width already
exists. See Attachment B for the proposed improvements
necessary to implement the proposed route network.
o Bicycle parking throughout the commercial and
recreational areas of the city through parking meter
mounts and bicycle racks.
o Bicycle parking requirements for new non-residential
development at the rate of 5% of the automobile parking
requirements. These requirements have already been
adopted by the City Council as part of the recent update
to the City's parking requirements in the Zoning
Ordinance.
o An education and awareness campaign.
The proposed Plan at this time does not include any bicycle
boulevards or street widenings since there has been little public
support for the changes.
COST ESTIMATE
The total cost of construction and design of the proposed Plan is
$1,287,7746. However, this total cost includes a few expensive
proposals, like the widening of the Lincoln Boulevard bridge over
the I-10 freeway ($500,000) and the ramp from the Pier to the beach
bicycle path ($120,000), and a 15% contingency.
The Plan will be funded as monies become available from local
return monies dedicated to bicycle programs, or county, state and
federal grant monies. No City general fund monies will be used to
implement the plan. The City has already received grant money for
implementing the Broadway restriping proposal and the 7th, 11th and
17th street proposals from Wilshire Boulevard to the freeway.
These grant monies are being held until approval of the Plan
incorporating these proposals by the City Council.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT
An Environmental Impact Report was prepared on the Draft Bicycle
Master Plan. The EIR analyzed potential negative and beneficial
impacts in the areas of transportation and circulation, Air
Quality, Noise, Energy, Aesthetics, Public Services, and
Neighborhood Effects.
The EIR did not identify any significant impacts due implementation
of the Bicycle Master Plan after mitigation. One intersection,
Lincoln Boulevard and Colorado Avenue, was identified as having a
significant impact after implementation of the Class II bike lane
on Broadway through reductions of travel lanes. The EIR proposes
to mitigate the impact through implementation of a coordinated
signal control system which the City is in the process of
implementing.
The EIR did identify beneficial impacts in transportation and
circulation, air quality, noise, energy, public services,
aesthetics, and neighborhood effects. These beneficial impacts are
due to modest but expected increases in bicycle use for both
commuting and recreational trips and the associated reduction in
automobile traffic. The extent of the beneficial impacts will
depend upon the increased number of bicycle riders that occur due
to implementation of the Plan.
The EIR does conduct a bicycle ridership forecast. However, there
is no standard methodology or research on bicycle ridership
forecasts due to improved bicycle amenities, so the ridership
forecast provides a range of possibilities based upon available
information. The information used in the forecast includes SCAG
origin/destination surveys on mode split information, SCAQMD
Regulation XV data, and LACMTA bicycle ridership information.
Based upon the analysis, the EIR states that implementation of the
Plan could lead to a daily increase of bicycle ridership from 760
to 1,580 new trips. 340 to 450 of these trips would be commute
trips, with the remainder recreational trips. However,
recreational trips may still be diverting automobile trips since
they may include trips to local stores and shops that would
otherwise have been done through driving.
OTHER ISSUES
General Plan Requirements
If adopted, the Bicycle Master Plan route network would be amended
into the Land Use and Circulation Element of the City's General
Plan. If the Planning Commission recommends adoption of the Plan,
staff will return to the Commission with a recommendation to amend
the Land Use and Circulation Element of the General Plan to
incorporate the route network before going to the City Council with
the adoption of the Plan and EIR.
Removal of Two-Way Turn Lanes
The removal of two-way turn lanes in the mid-block area of 7th,
11th and 17th Streets from Wilshire to the Freeway has received
some opposition. They feel this will make it inconvenient for
customers to access many of the businesses on these streets by
making it difficult to exit and enter parking facilities. However,
this is the only alternative in that part of the City for
implementing a bicycle lane, since removal of parking in the
commercial and high density residential areas is not a good
alternative.
These streets have the following average daily trips:
7th Street: 6000 to 8000 average daily trips from Wilshire
to the Freeway
11th Street: 10,000 to 12,000 average daily trips from
Wilshire to Pico
17th Street: 8,000 to 9,000 average daily trips from
Wilshire to Olympic.
City staff has also counted the number of parking lots for
commercial businesses that may be impacted by the removal of the
two-way traffic lanes in the mid-block section. On 7th Street,
there are approximately 16 driveways in the mid-block sections,
while 11th Street and 17th Street have approximately 10 parking
lots each in the mid-block sections. With the volume of traffic,
the number of parking lots, and the apparent light use of the two-
way turn median, staff believes that this proposal will not have a
significant impact on automobile traffic or access to businesses on
these streets. The EIR also reached a similar conclusion on this
matter. There was one comment letter on the Draft EIR on this
issue from W.I. Simonson Inc.. Staff has proposed a minor change
to the striping of the remaining left turn pocket at 17th Street
and Wilshire Boulevard to address their concern of access to their
facility.
PUBLIC OUTREACH
Public outreach has been conducted with three public workshops,
discussions with the neighborhood associations and transportation
committees through the Neighborhood Support Center, a Planning
Commission public hearing, a City Council hearing and two community
workshops. The public hearing and workshops were noticed by
mailings to over 500 interested individuals. Staff has also met
with employee transportation coordinators representing businesses
in the City, and representatives of the Santa Monica Chamber of
Commerce. The Outlook published a story regarding the Draft
Bicycle Master Plan and included a map of the previously planned
bicycle route network. The two community workshops in May, 1992
were noticed by mailing a flyer to every resident on a proposed
bicycle route in the north of Wilshire and Sunset Park areas. A
recent article also appeared in the Los Angeles Times regarding
bicycle planning throughout the Westside.
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the Planning Commission conduct a public
hearing, review the Draft Bicycle Master Plan and EIR, and
recommend that the City Council adopt the Draft Bicycle Master Plan
and certify the EIR.
The proposed plan recommended for adoption includes the following:
o An extensive bicycle route network throughout the City,
including: Class II routes on portions of 4th, 7th,
11th, 17th, Arizona, Broadway and Pearl, and Class III
routes on portions of 7th, 11th, 17th, Yale/Stewart,
Washington, Ashland and Pearl. The proposed Class I
bicycle paths in the Civic Center Specific Plan have been
included in the Plan and replace some previous proposals
for the area. See Attachment A for a map of the planned
network.
o Improvements necessary to implement these routes include
removal of the mid-block two-way left turn lane on 7th,
11th and 17th streets from Wilshire to the Santa Monica
Freeway, restriping of Broadway from Lincoln to 26th
Street to one auto lane in each direction with turn lanes
and bicycle lanes (similar to Main Street restriping),
and striping of streets were sufficient width already
exists. See Attachment B for the proposed improvements
necessary to implement the proposed route network.
o Bicycle parking throughout the commercial and
recreational areas of the city through parking meter
mounts and bicycle racks.
o Bicycle parking requirements for new non-residential
development at the rate of 5% of the automobile parking
requirements. These requirements have already been
adopted by the City Council as part of the recent update
to the City's parking requirements in the Zoning
Ordinance.
o An education and awareness campaign.
The proposed Plan at this time does not include any bicycle
boulevards or street widenings since there has been little public
support for the changes.
If the Planning Commission recommends approval of the Bicycle
Master Plan, staff will return to the Commission with a
recommendation to amend the Land Use and Circulation Element of the
General Plan to incorporate the route network and then go to the
City Council with the adoption of the Plan, EIR and general plan
amendments.
Prepared by: Suzanne Frick, Director of LUTM
Paul Casey, Acting Senior Planner
Attachment A: Map of Proposed Bicycle Route Network
B: Map of Proposed Modification to Implement the
Bicycle Route Network
C. Draft Bicycle Master Plan, Revised April, 1994
(Delivered under separate cover)
D. Final Environmental Impact Report (Delivered under
separate cover)