Walnut Creek "mobility gripe No. 3: Where the sidewalk ends on Ygnacio Valley

I'm sure city planners had good reason at some point, allowing this notable gap in the sidewalk between John Muir Medical Center and San Carlos Drive. And, I'm sure there are readers out there who can explain how this came about and correct my ignorance.

And, yes, there is something nice about the idea of building a "green" sound wall to protect residents along Los Altos Avenue from the heavy traffic noise of Ygnacio Valley Road.

And, I know that you can take what can be a pleasant detour north of John Muir hospital, onto the trail that takes you into San Miguel Park.

And, I know you can cross Ygnacio there from the south side to the north. Yeah, and you can wait and wait for the "walking man" signal that lets you cross...

But still. This gap is just that: a gap, which hinders easy pedestrian and bicycle mobility from one point on Ygnacio to another....

I've come across it frequently my little jogs, like this morning, around town, when I choose to climb up and over Ygnacio Valley Road. And, this sidewalk stop has always mystified me.

Oh, and to the left is peek at the fence on the other side of the soundwall.

Walnut Creek "mobility" gripe No. 2: Where the sidewalk ends on Newell Avenue, and it shouldn't...

First, I should explain the use of the term "mobility" in both these post and the one prior.

"Mobility" was the catch-all term that arose during the city-hosted Community Conversation workshops this fall to apply to all issues that pertain to how cars, trucks, buses, bikes, and people move in around town.

Mobility.

And, so here is one of my Walnut Creek mobility gripes. It has to do with how you're strolling along Newell Avenue, or South Main Street, and you come to the southeast corner of the Newell Avenue and South Main intersection. If you want to walk east on Newell, along the south side of the avenue, between Newell and San Ramon Creek, you immediately lose the sidewalk once you come to the Terrace Shops strip mall.

If you want to walk between Newell Avenue and San Ramon Creek, you have to leave the sidewalk and pass through the mall's parking lot. This is true for anyone passing from downtown, the Kaiser medical center, and Pacific Bay Coffee Company or George's Giant Hamburger in the Terrace Shops mall towards Whole Foods and the northern entrance to Las Lomas High School.

Sure, coming to the end of the sidewalk and passing through the parking lot is not that big of deal. But there are cars coming and going and backing in and out of a bustling small mall.

And the thing is, this gap in a pedestrian walkway in a downtown commercial area runs counter to the goals of Walnut Creek's General Plan 2025. In the Plan's Chapter 5, the Transportation section, the city established some guidelines.

The plan says that the city should require "full-frontage" curb and sidewalk improvemtns in all commercial areas, and that these sidwalks should be a minimum of 10 feet wide.

The Terrace Shops were built a while back. The center has been in Walnut Creek from the time I was a kid. So, no doubt, the city government, way back then, probably didn't impose any sidewalk requirements on the original developer. In the General Plan 2025, the city says it wants to require that sidewalks be installed at the time of development. However, it acknowledges that "the burden to install as well as maintain sidewalks in most cases rests with the property owner."

Still, the General Plan makes it clear that the city hopes to correct the development mistakes of the past, and presumably that would one day include adding a sidewalk to the Newell Avenue frontage of the Terrace Shops mall. On the other hand, that's a pretty narrow parking lot. Making room for a sidewalk would take serious width away from an already narrow, crowded parking lot.

Should Walnut Creek become more bicycle friendly? If so, how? And, can’t we all—cyclists and motorists—be friends?

Actually, it’s mandated in the Walnut Creek General Plan 2025 that Walnut Creek become more bike friendly. According to its draft Bicycle Plan, the city wants to “provide a safe and attractive environment for bicycle travel, promote bicycle use as a sustainable and healthy mode of transportation, and provide facilities that encourage and support bicycle use for travel and recreation in Walnut Creek.

Besides these lofty, eco-friendly goals, the city needs to develop a comprehensive Bicycle Plan to become eligible to receive state funds alloted by such agencies as the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management Distirct.

Okay, so Walnut Creek must become more bicycle friendly. The “how” is what the City Council will begin discussing at its meeting Tuesday night.

Background: Over the past 10 years, the city has spent about $2 million to ease bicycle transportation around town. These new facilities include building a “Class 1” bicycle- and pedestrian-only bridge along the Iron Horse Trail crossing Ygnacio Valley Road and installing 50 new bike racks in the downtown area.

But the city would like to do more to encourage more people to bike to work or to school or to use bikes to shop, go out to eat, take in a movie or show at the Lesher Center, and get themselves to our parks and open space areas.

The Draft Bicycle plan says that many roads are not currently bicycle friendly; connections to downtown, transit, and work centers are not clearly established; bike parking facilities are inadequate; and improvements should be made in bike safety programs. Also, the unincorporated pockets surrounded by the city (like my neighborhood) create gaps in bike routes.

The city has identified a long list of destinations for cyclists that includes 31 schools, 27 parks and open spaces, two BART stations, and eight commercial centers. The city would also like to improve the bike networks between us and neighboring cities.

One consideration: The 2000 Census shows that only 0.6 percent of Walnut Creek residents bike to work on a regular basis. That number is slightly higher than the national average and, of course, doesn’t include kids who ride their bikes to school or people who ride recreationally.

A disclosure: I don’t ride a bicycle and don’t foresee myself taking up cycling, but I have co-workers who bike to work and relatives who are serious recreational cyclists. For these people, I know cycling saves them money for commuting, and gives them a chance to exercise and enjoy the outdoors.

One major concern is bicycle safety for cyclists. However, it appears that the people most in need of bicycle safety education are the cyclists themselves. Of the 109 bicycle crashes in Walnut Creek from 2004 to 2008, the majority were caused by the cyclists, primarily by riding on the wrong side of the road. Remember, as the draft plan says, every person riding a bicycle upon a street or highway is subject to the all the duties applicable to a driver of a vehicle.

Hmm. I’ve seen a fair share of cyclists, especially those weekend groups riding in packs fail to stop at stop signs in my neighborhood …

Well, here are some of the specific ideas for making Walnut Creek more bicycle friendly, and you can read more in the draft plan:

--Require major development and redevelopment projects be reviewed by the Bicycle Advisory Committee to ensure that bicycle facilities can accommodate various users, including the provision of temporary facilities.
--Require appropriate bicycle-related improvements as a condition of design
review or subdivision approval.
--Require routine accommodations for all modes of travel when implementing city street-widening projects
-- Consider sidewalk widths greater than 10 feet whenever bicyclists are allowed or encouraged to use sidewalks on a designated bicycle facility.
--Where feasible, integrate new bikeways when designing new or modifying existing roadways.
--Support the development of a bikeway network that provides connections to bikeways in neighboring communities.

Bay Bridge closed indefinitely; transit agencies scramble to deal with Wednesday's commute

Bay Area commuters and local transit agencies were struggling Tuesday night to figure out how to deal with the emergency closure of Bay Bridge after a crossbar and rods from emergency Labor Day weekend repair work came loose and struck three vehicles.

Caltrans closed the bridge in both directions at around 7 p.m., and the San Francisco Chronicle and KTVU said officials could not estimate when the bridge would re-open. The pieces crashed across the westbound lanes of the bridge's eastern span, east of Yerba Buena Island, at about 5:30 p.m. Amazingly, only one person sustained minor injuries.

Inspecting the bridge and beginning the repairs was complicated by high winds Tuesday night.

Now, transit officials are trying to figure out how to deal with commute traffic across the region's busiest bridge.

BART would bring in extra operators to run trains, and the Golden Gate Ferry will have an extra high-speed ferry available. Plans for putting more ferries in operation was in the works.

Bay Bridge to remain closed until early Wednesday: How will you cope?

That is, if you need to take the Bay Bridge tomorrow.

The announcement that work that led to the bridge's closure over Labor Day weekend won't be completed until 5 a.m. Wednesday, not tomorrow morning as scheduled, leaves thousands of drivers to find alternate ways to get into San Francisco. It could also create possible gridlock on other Bay Area bridges and roads.

I have to say I'm lucky. I live and work in Walnut Creek. So does my husband. We actually defied the advice of authorities and went to enjoy a getaway over Labor Day weekend in kthe Big City. Amazingly, we encountered little traffic coming or going via the San Mateo, Golden Gate, and Richmond-San Rafael bridges.

But then, the Bay Area had received plenty of advance notice of the bridge's Labor Day weekend closure. Caltrans needed to shut down the bridge for a few days so that it could finish work on a 300-foot section of the bridge's eastern span. The closure had been announced weeks, months in advance. So, people likely stayed away from the city this past weekend or found alternative ways to get there.

But everyone expected that things would be back to normal first thing tomorrow morning.

Now that's not going to happen. Work on the span hit a snag over the weekend. As KTVU reports labor on the replacement portion will be completed as scheduled, but essential work on a cracked eyebeam will force Caltrans to keep the span closed until 5 a.m. Wednesday.

KTVU says the cracked eyebar was spotted during an inspection of the bridge Saturday, and construction crews scrambled this weekend to complete designs for the repair work and gather all the materials needed to complete the project. The crack was described by engineers as being about two inches thick and halfway through the eyebeam.