CityofGoleta
Source: City of Goleta
The City of Goleta is initiating a new Capital Improvement Program (CIP) project which will take steps toward making Hollister Avenue in Old Town a “Complete Street”. At the January 19, 2021, City Council meeting, Council approved the new project and also approved using $70,000 from the Measure A fund balance to begin traffic and engineering analysis to develop the Conceptual Design for the new Hollister Avenue Old Town Interim Striping Project. Measure A funds can only be used to fund local transportation projects consisting of road repair, traffic relief and safety measures.
After hearing from staff and a considerable amount of public comment, Council directed staff to move forward with this top priority project. The Interim Striping Project includes reducing Hollister Avenue from four to two lanes in the Old Town corridor and adding Class II bike lanes. The goal is to create safe, convenient and comfortable travel and access for community members of all ages and abilities, regardless of their mode of transportation along Hollister Avenue in Old Town Goleta.
The Hollister Avenue Old Town Interim Striping Project came about due to the long timeline and lack of funding needed to construct the Hollister Avenue Complete Streets Corridor Project. The Hollister Avenue Complete Streets Corridor Project will enhance safety, access and mobility for all users (pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders) on Hollister Avenue between Fairview Avenue and State Route 217.
The Interim Striping Project focuses on improvements to the Hollister Avenue corridor between Fairview Avenue and State Route 217 and will be used as a demonstration project looking at implementing improvements which were developed as part of the Complete Streets Corridor Study. The Interim Striping Project will focus primarily on restriping Hollister Avenue in Old Town Goleta as a two-lane roadway with bike lanes and provides an opportunity to gauge the effectiveness and safety of the identified changes before more permanent hardscape improvements are constructed. These other improvements such as sidewalk widening, new medians, landscaping, and other beautification elements also identified as part of the Complete Streets Corridor Project will be deferred to a future project.
Mayor Paula Perotte said, “We are excited to move forward with a study that will inform us on how to best proceed with The Hollister Avenue Interim Striping Project. This project would include re-striping Hollister Avenue to test the effects of reducing car lanes and gain more car parking and bike lanes. “
Charlie Ebeling, City of Goleta Director of Public Works, added, “The Interim Striping Project is a great first step in the process. This project will help us answer questions about what works and what doesn’t, when we are ready to move forward with the Hollister Avenue Complete Streets Project.”
With the action taken at the City Council meeting, Public Works will begin the analysis and scoping to develop the Conceptual Design for the Interim Striping Project. Staff will return to City Council to present a scope, budget, timeline and conceptual design for the striping changes before moving forward into the Design and Construction Phases. The City will continue to pursue the more permanent Hollister Avenue Complete Streets Corridor Project improvements and look for opportunities for funding.
The complete staff report is available here: https://tinyurl.com/yxt4a42j.
Fixing a problem that’s not there. I use Hollister Ave. quite a bit and hardy ever see a bicycle.
SAIL380 what is your point? You probably don’t see many bicycles on 101 either. Isn’t the whole point of this to make it safer for bicyclists so that more people will ride a bicycle instead of cluttering the public street with their cars?
It is a lie to imply that one out of three prefer bicycling by including pedestrians and “other alternatives” to cars. I am a pedestrian when I walk my dog or walk from the parking lot to the grocery store or walk from a parking space to a restaurant. There is no way that I am a “pedestrian” as an alternative to using my car to drive to a store or restaurant or medical visit. I do not “prefer” to walk or bike to a grocery store several miles from my home and carry my purchases back. The bicycle heroes are exhausting. I drive an electric car. I care about the environment. I am not into a fetish about exercise and my holier than thou lifestyle. We need to keep some perspective.
We are in the thralls of the bicycle lobby which will stop at nothing to impose their version righteousness. Removing car lanes and dedicating public space to bicycles over the needs of those who have work to do, places to go, packages to carry and deliver, passengers to ferry and such is a wrong against the public. Remember when we tore down freeways to protect neighborhoods? We need to stop the usurpation of public ways by the bicycle elite to protect the use of neighborhoods by ordinary people.
I am thrilled about this. The computer models usually show that narrowing from 4 to 2 lanes will not slow car traffic. But there’s no substitute for giving it a relatively inexpensive test. I hope it works and that old town businesses and community members will soon enjoy a community that is more welcoming to the 1/3 of us who prefer walking, cycling, wheel chairs, and other alternatives to the car.
It’s funny. I ride it whenever I need something from Bicycle Bob’s, the big bike shop at Hollister and Kellog.
The plan for re-striping Hollister Avenue through downtown from four to two lanes will create a bottleneck for people using downtown businesses and those going through town to work or nearby facilities. The traffic is congested enough without adding delays as people try to parallel park on the street. Parking brings up another problem that hasn’t been addressed. Part of the city’s long term plan is to widen the sidewalks and make other improvements to encourage more people to spend time downtown. Where are these additional people supposed to park? Most of the downtown businesses do not have any off street parking and the street parking on both sides and the side streets is already nearly fully utilized.
At this time the car and bike traffic seems to flow together without problems although it would be nice for the cyclist to have their own lanes, but until the parking situation is resolved we think making any changes to Hollister are premature.
When did we vote that private motor vehicles get to take over half of all urban land? Or receive hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies? I must have missed that election?
Funny how when people get unearned privileges they scream bloody murder if they have to give up even a tiny bit of that privilege? RHS must be missing the absurdity of his shrieks over the usurpation of public ways?
100% of every non-student cyclist who I know, also own a vehicle (or two…and/or a motorcycle). Very/very few people in SB use their bicycles 100% of the time for transportation. Even those most against Big Oil and oil drilling own vehicles, and products derived from petroleum…..it inescapable for now. In SB, nearly no “green” eco-conscious people who ride the MTD (save those few coming/going to SBCC or UCSB). Maybe some day I’ll see one of you taking the #20 to go to the beach in Summerland/Santa Claus Lane/Carpinteria. Why there is no electric shuttle from downtown SB to The Old Mission is beyond me in our greenie-green town. If you are going to talk-the-talk, maybe walk-the-walk by using MTD once in a while. I’d gladly pay extra in taxes to bolster our public transportation, but the buses oftentimes run empty (ever been on the #14 to/from Montecito?).
SRROBERT, you claims are incredibly wrong and close to delusional. Do you just make up numbers? Roads are a public service that benefits all of us, not just the people in the vehicles at any given moment. The facilitate commerce and make housing accessible and communities less isolated. We, as a society, have long been willing to pay for roads not just for the convenience of those in carriages or cars but for the good of the whole. People who like to bicycle can do so of course, but they do not have priority over the greater good. I have supported bike lanes and bike ways even when their cost is exorbitant (such as the lanes on 101 between Montecito and Ventura which are rarely occupied) because I think they make us a better society (just like a park for children which I would not personally use). But bottlenecking Hollister to the detriment of the many so a few can travel there in their own way is not equitable.
Here’s an idea. Bicyclists and pedestrians – obey the rules of the road! That means not walking or riding on the opposite side of the road, not randomly changing lanes into traffic, not riding a bike on the sidewalk, etc. You have rules just like car drivers do. It will help keep you from getting in an accident, trust me. The rules are there for a reason. The reason is this – so everyone is in the same page and knows what others are doing!
10:26: We voted when we elected people to build and manage infrastructure to make out life more easy. Are you objecting that we do not now have cow trails, horse paths, buggy routes in urban areas? People with “private” motor vehicles have chosen an urban model that works pretty well and will work much better in the near future as we transition to electric. Your fixation on bicycle transport is pretty weird. The idea that we need to a lot of dedicate public space to the few who choose to use this mode is selfish. If you want to eliminate private transport you would need to create a compact vertical city such as NYC. Most people do not want that lifestyle. Those that do can move there or to Singapore or Tokyo.
Roadways for motor vehicles are mostly paid for by fuel taxes. Those same taxes are paying for the lanes for the freeloading cyclists. Cycling is fine as an alternate form of transport for some, but it can never replace the necessity of efficient transportation system for the delivery of all the goods we depend on or for people that for various reasons cycling is not a practical alternative.
Cyclists subsidize motorists JE2RY6 and RHS. Fuel taxes only pay a tiny fraction of the costs for roads. The biggest cost for roads is the land and motorists pay nothing toward that at all. The money comes from general tax funds. It turns out that cyclists pay about six times as much as motorists do per mile travelled.
Fuel taxes would need to be about $8 per gallon just to make up for all of the subsidies we pay for people to drive their private vehicles. I would be happy to give up any meager subsidies for cycling and transit if motorists are willing to pay their way. Is that a deal we can agree on? Then we can see what the free market would really give us in terms of transportation?
SBROBERT I don’t know how accurate your figures are, but even if they are cyclist are being subsidized for their share of the cost of delivering goods and services using our essential roads.