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On Deadline: Pricey bike-boulevard/tunnels plan recycles some 1972 history

by Jay Thorwaldson

Wow. The price of bike lanes has really gone up, I thought when I saw the $37 million price tag for doubling the number of bike lanes in Palo Alto.

Sure, the city for decades has been known as one of the "bicycle capitals" of California -- lagging behind Davis, the valley college town. Both are flat cities, if you leave out the half of Palo Alto that is in the hills.

But the prosperity years of the dot-com bubble and social pressures have conspired to get Palo Alto youngsters out of the saddle and into the car seat. Likewise, the pace of life for adults seems to have done the same thing.

And sure, Palo Alto was the one of the first -- it is so believed -- cities to put in a protected bike-boulevard, up Bryant Street.

But $37 million?

Even spread over several years, that is a real investment. The May release of the "Palo Alto Bicycle Transportation Plan" shocked some residents beyond the point of outrage and disbelief. City leaders, already under attack for salary levels and overblown costs of services, have yet to weigh in on the report's proposals.

The bike plan is separate from but complementary to a "School Commute Corridors" traffic-safety plan outlined for the school board May 13, and endorsed unanimously by the city Planning and Transportation Commission May 14. No cost estimates yet for that.

But the bike transportation plan is the big-ticket attention-grabber.

The biggest bite of the $37 million -- about $20 million -- would go into four bicycle/pedestrian tunnels under the Caltrain tracks, $5 million each. The balance is divided into $9 million straight construction costs and $8 million for contingencies (standard 15 percent) and design and administration (also 15 percent).

Specific components range from less than $15,000 (for bike lanes at El Camino Way, Maybell Avenue and Donald Drive) to $836,727 for major work along Alma Street. How can they be so precise?

Other biggies include $671,765 for bike lanes in the Hanover Street/Porter Drive area and $512,121 for a bike route along El Camino Real.

The plan does not like combining sidewalks with bike routes, as was done in the 1970s along Alma Street, Middlefield Road and some other streets that don't have room for both a bike lane and car lanes.

Where would the money come from? The report mentions this, but scantily. Funding, it says, should come from a local capital-improvement program, with funds for maintenance, repair and upgrading, plus outside funding from a variety of alphabet-soup agencies: TDA, BTA, TFCA, TEA and CMAQ -- explained in detail in an appendix with the type of funding they might provide.

The half-inch-thick plan was prepared by a consortium of consultants, headed by Wilbur Smith Associates and including Bicycle Solutions, Siegman & Associates, and Zitney & Associates.

"All in all, from a bicyclist's perspective, Palo Alto is an excellent place to ride," the report notes in its introduction. "First, its level terrain and quiet, tree-shaded side streets offer comfort and safety. The temperate climate makes year-round biking possible.

"Lastly, the size of the city makes practically all parts of the city accessible by all residents within a 30-minute ride."

We sort of knew that, but such reports are often written as if they were meant to be read by someone from way out of town, or another planet. Do we need to know Palo Alto is about 35 miles south of San Francisco?

But in reading the report one gets a sense of the tremendous amount of work that went into it. It is replete with statistics, facts, comparisons, evaluations, both in its main body and in an extensive set of appendices. It's worth at least a good scan for anyone who cares about safety of bicyclists (adults and children) and about encouraging use of bicycles -- or bringing Palo Alto back into competition for "bicycle capital" designation.

The report also evokes some dÈjý vu, as in we've been there before -- going back nearly 30 years, to February 1972.

After extensive staff study, the City Council adopted a 66.6-mile bike-lane plan that would have banned parking on both sides of 45.6 miles of residential streets.

Never in the city's history, before or since, has there been such an explosion of outrage than from residents, who would lose "their" curbside parking. Forget that curb spaces are technically city-owned. For residents, "They are MINE!"

After what the Palo Alto Times reported as "three weeks of flaying by angry Palo Alto residents," the city staff reeled back to the council with a bare-bones, minimalist plan that cut the overall system by a full third, to 42 miles -- only 13 miles of which would restrict parking in residential areas, and then only on one side of the street.

The partially mollified residents simmered down. The incident became less than a footnote in local history -- even though it was the biggest flash citizen revolt ever.

The cost? The total plan would have cost $172,000, but the staff cut out a $60,000 undercrossing at El Camino near California Avenue, and added some more curb ramps for those sidewalk bike-route sections for a final total of $132,000.

You can't even buy a consultant's report for that today.

Jay Thorwaldson is editor of the Weekly. He can be e-mailed at jthorwaldson@paweekly.com.