Transportation issues and Parking

By Jesse Townley

These are responses to a questionnaire from the Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition, the wonderful bicycle advocacy organization which runs the Bicycle Cage in the Berkeley BART station.

We need to complete the bicycle boulevards so that bicycle lanes go through destination districts as well as between destination districts. Shattuck Avenue in downtown Berkeley is especially dangerous and must be resolved as soon as possible.

We need to implement a serious local "Share Our Streets" program. We can improve our streets and sidewalks by encouraging civility, common sense, and safety for users of all methods of transportation. We should defeat polarization based on transportation choices, and encourage cooperation and coordination between all of us. After all, most of us do not solely use a single mode of transport. For instance, many of us switch from being a pedestrian to being a bicyclist to being an automobile driver within the course of an average day. Others of us switch from being wheelchair users to being automobile drivers daily.

2. Often with bicycle projects there are competing needs to accommodate motorists, such as maintaining traffic flows, parking, and vehicle access. What do you think is the right balance between improving streets for bicyclists and maintaining conditions for motorists?

There must be a balance of non and low-polluting transportation (pedestrians, bicycles, wheelchairs, electric/hybrid/biodiesel vehicles) and auto/truck traffic. Realistically, our state and federal governments are systematically starving our public transit systems, so we cannot count on increased public transit services as a reliable alternative to auto use. Although pedestrian, wheelchair, and bicycle methods are preferable to any polluting transport method, there are many necessary uses for autos, paratransit vans, and delivery trucks. We should continue providing for safe, energy-saving, and efficient traffic flow for all transport methods. For instance, traffic roundabouts (with clear instructions for all users like `everyone entering roundabout yields to traffic already in the roundabout'), are common sense, cost-effective traffic calming devices which serve all transport methods. The surrounding community can help defray maintenance/beautification costs by donating materials and labor for plants/gardening on the roundabouts.

3. There is a lot of pressure to use public funds to build a new downtown parking garage. There are also many other worthy, unfunded projects in downtown Berkeley to improve transit service, pedestrian safety and bicycle access . As a Council Member, what leadership would you bring to this issue?

We need to bring the innovative bicycle parking cage @ Berkeley BART aboveground and fund it for longer periods of daily operation. We should expand other on-street bicycle and motorcycle parking, and keep both types of parking free/exempt from parking permits/parking meters in order to encourage both extremely efficient modes of transport.

Safe, accessible downtown parking is vital for the following groups: families with small children, the physically disabled, seniors, regional patrons of arts, regional shoppers/diners, people with large and/or multiple packages, and people who live in the hills beyond the reach of scheduled/convenient/reliable public transportation. Also, parking is vital for business deliveries, home deliveries, other economic purposes, and a huge array of cultural and social purposes. We should keep the current stock of vehicle parking and require replacement parking for any lost parking due to development in business districts. Parking is a shared responsibility of public and private interests. Innovative ideas like a parking assessment district would provide alternate funding sources for otherwise prohibitively expensive spaces. After all, Hink's garage was built by a private company and maintained for decades through a business assessment district.