The Palo Alto City Council voted unanimously Monday night to consider building a Highway 101 overpass for bikes and pedestrians.

Staff recommended the bridge design over upgrading underpasses at Adobe and Matadero Creeks. Those underpasses, although potentially cheaper, would have been closed during the rainy season and would have been susceptible to flooding and sea-level rise.

The bridge option, conceived by Alta Planning + Design, would provide year-round access to the Baylands from South Palo Alto, and come with a price tag of between $5.4 and $9.4 million, much of which would ostensibly come from Valley Transportation Authority and other transit agency grants.

That cost was a concern for the Planning and Transportation Commission, but didn’t outweigh the perceived benefits, according to PTC member Greg Tanaka.

“It’s clear that some kind of access is needed for the Baylands, especially for south Palo Alto,” he said. “The problem is the price tag.” The PTC nonetheless voted to recommend the project to City Council on a 4-2 vote.

Other members of the public were outspoken in their support. Palo Alto resident Irvin Dawid encouraged council members to themselves try biking over San Antonio to experience how dangerous and uncomfortable he said it is. A new bridge is critical, and worth the money, he said.

“The idea of cutting pennies on something like this—you’re talking about an infrastructure project that is going to last literally for generations,” said Dawid.

Cedric de La Beaujardiere, Chair of the Bike Advisory Commission, agreed, noting that the location of the bridge in south Palo Alto would support the most number of users. Staff anticipates at least 55,000 users annually. He also encouraged council to select a wide width option in order to support a higher number of people at a variety of speeds.

“Eight foot width could deter people,” he said. An “enhanced” design option that will now be considered by staff could be as wide as 20 feet. A representative from Alta said that ten feet would be the minimum acceptable width to meet future growth needs.

Council Member Greg Schmid was first to emphatically endorse the recommendation.

“I would like to enthusiastically support the proposed 101 overcrossing,” said Schmid. He was disappointed that Palo Alto is lagging behind other Peninsula cities that have already built or are building bridges over Highway 101, including in Belmont, Menlo Park, and Mountain View.

“I guess the question is, why isn’t Palo Alto there?” he said.

Council Member Karen Holman, a self-professed fiscal conservative, was also strongly in favor of the project and took a particular interest in its design. She encouraged city staff not to become too married to the existing conceptual plans, and made a motion to study the creation of a design contest.

“With all due respect to our own designers,” said Holman, “we don’t seem to be attracting really world-class designers. I think if we open this up to broader than our usual design pool, we might find something truly remarkable.”

Holman also encouraged Chief Transportation Official Jamie Rodriguez to explore public-private partnerships to pay for the bridge, namely with Google.

Council Member Gail Price motioned to vote on the recommendation, Holman seconded, and the bike and pedestrian bridge was unanimously selected for a feasibility study.

The sweeping, popular expansion of Palo Alto’s bicycle and pedestrian network is on hold, but probably not for long.

The City Council voted early Tuesday morning to send the final draft of the 2011 Bicycle + Pedestrian Transportation Plan back to city staff to incorporate a slew of modifications before returning to council with a final plan.

Although they expressed great appreciation for the majority of the plan, council members wanted to see more attention paid to funding, design, and implementation.

“I’m torn, because I want to see this adopted,” said Council Member Pat Burt. “I don’t expect that we’re gonna have another bike master plan for quite a while, so it’s really important that we get it with these additional changes.”

One by one, council members took their turn proposing tweaks to the plan.

Council Member Greg Schmid said that the plan places a lot of focus on north-south corridors, but needs to pay more attention to east-west paths, especially given the projected growth along El Camino Real and the likely need for additional capacity for bikes travelling to and from that area.

Schmid also noted the lack of proposed bridges over Highway 101, pointing out that Mountain View, Menlo Park and Redwood City all have bike and pedestrian bridges built or under construction.

“I would look for wording in the bike plan that says the bike plan strongly endorses cross-101 connections,” said Schmid.

Council Member Greg Scharff added to the list of changes, pointing out the lack of bike racks downtown.

“Bike parking should be emphasized a little bit more,” said Scharff. “I have a hard time finding a rack downtown.”

Scharff also noted that the plan didn't call for a bike path next to the Downtown Whole Foods, and he took issue with the use of the word "non-motorized" throughout the plan, because he said it didn't anticipate the likely popularity of electric bicycles in the future. He asked staff to change the language to "bike and pedestrian" so as to not rule out new technological advances.

After a unanimous vote, the plan was kicked back to the Parks and Recreation Commission and Transportation and Planning Commission fore further review.

Palo Alto Chief Transportation Official Jamie Rodriguez, who said there are numerous income streams to tap to fund the $35 million plan, was receptive to the changes.

Rodriguez did point out to council, though, that the plan—which sailed through two commissions before arriving at Council Chambers—calls for improvements that could bring the city to a platinum certification from the League of American Bicyclists, who designated Palo Alto a “Bike Friendly Community.” The city currently has gold status.

If eventually approved, the plan would build upon the ambitious 2003 Bicycle Transportation Plan by including innovative design strategies, a new policy framework, a revised bike network and other changes.

The plan lays out the following five objectives:

• Double the rate of bicycling for both local and total work commutes by 2020 (to 15% and 5%, respectively).
• Convert discretionary vehicle trips into walking and bicycling trips in order to reduce City transportation-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 15% by 2020.
• Develop a core network of shared paths, bikeways, and traffic-calmed street that connects open spaces and promotes healthy, active living.
• Plan, construct, and maintain ‘Complete Streets’ that are safe and accessible to all modes and people of all ages and abilities.
• Promote efficient, sustainable, and creative use of limited public resources through integrated design and planning.

To help meet these objectives, there would be an “aggressive expansion” of the existing Bikeway Network, according to the new plan, by adding over 50 miles of new or enhanced routes, bringing the total length of the network to about 120 miles.

These routes would include new bike lanes, shared lanes, multi-use paths, “enhanced” bikeways—which offer dedicated or preferential use for bicyclists—and new or expanded Bicycle Boulevards.

The plan also, for the first time, outlines a strategy for pedestrian transportation. If approved, sidewalks would have to be built at least six feet wide with no gaps, all curb ramps would be ADA compliant, curb extensions would be considered where appropriate, curb radii would be tightened to slow motorists, higher-visibility crosswalks and signals would be built, and new shared spaces for motorists and pedestrians would be considered.

Palo Alto Planning Director Curtis Williams said he thinks staff should have the revised plan back before the council by February.

Winding trails, colorful bike lanes, prominent signs and a new bicycle boulevard snaking southward from the middle of the city are all components of the City Council's ambitious quest to make Palo Alto one of the top biking places in the nation.

The council had a chance to discuss the proposed improvements to the city's bicycle infrastructure Monday night, when it considered the pending upgrades to the city's Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan, a document the city expects to finish drafting this summer. The plan, which was last upgraded in 2003, will evaluate the city's biking needs and pedestrian amenities and propose improvements.

Fittingly, council members, city staff and dozens of city residents kicked off the Monday meeting with an afternoon bike ride from City Hall to south Palo Alto and back -- a journey that included a dash next to a proposed new trail along Churchill Avenue, a stop at the California Avenue Caltrain station and a trip down Park Boulevard, the city's next bicycle boulevard. The group of riders, which included Mayor Sid Espinosa, City Manager James Keene and Palo Alto Unified School District Superintendent Kevin Skelly and about 40 bike enthusiasts, also had a chance to comment on the plan and hear presentations about the various design proposals from Chief Transportation Officer Jaime Rodriguez and consultants who are helping to put the plan together.

Casey Hildreth, a consultant with the firm Alta Planning + Design, said the revised plan aims to roughly double the number of trails and paths in the city, from the existing nine miles to about 17.5. City officials and consultants also plan to create a new bicycle boulevard, which would extend from Castilleja Avenue near Palo Alto High School and run through Park Boulevard toward Wilkie Way in south Palo Alto. The first block of the new bike route would feature a colored bike lane, part of a broader system of way-finding signs city officials plan to install direct bikers to prime riding routes.

The goal is to double the rate of bicycling in Palo Alto by 2020, Hildreth said.

Palo Alto wants more people to bike and to make cycling safer and more convenient for residents this year. On Thursday, a public “open house and call for ideas” will take place at Terman Middle School from 6:30-8:30 p.m. to discuss Palo Alto's new proposed Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan.

The new plan, which will replace the 2003 plan, aims to increase the number of people who commute via bike by 15 percent over the next decade. 

In particular, the city wants to make biking more accessible for residents who have contemplated biking but are concerned about safety, said Rafael Rius, transportation project engineer for Palo Alto. Currently, the percentage of commuters who bike versus drive to work is seven percent, he said Tuesday night at a meeting with the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission.

In May 2003, Palo Alto was designated a ”bicycle friendly community” by the League of American Bicyclists, according to the city’s Web site. Palo Alto wants a “Platinum Level” designation, which only three other cities have obtained: Portland, Ore.; Davis, Calif.; and Boulder, Colo.

Wide streets with rolled curbs could convert into bicycle boulevards,
according to a presentation made to the city’s Transportation and
Planning Commission last February by Alta Planning + Design, an independent consulting firm the city hired late last year.

Park Boulevard, which parallels Alma Street, and Georgia Avenue in Barron Park have high priority for conversion, according to Rafael Rius, transportation project engineer for the city.

A new under- or over-crossing of Caltrain tracks on El Camino Real
at Matadero or Margarita avenues might also become a reality, according to Alta's presentation. At Embarcadero Road, between Newell and Middlefield roads near Walter Hayes Elementary School, the city may create a wide sidewalk with separate travel ways for bicyclists and pedestrians, according to Alta's presentation.