Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, June 07, 2022
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER APPROVAL OF THE AMENDMENT TO THE MASTER PLAN OF BIKEWAYS (CITY COUNCIL)
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I. SUMMARY
The City of Carson Master Plan of Bikeways was adopted in August 2013 as a strategic vision for improved bicycle transportation in the city, guiding bike infrastructure, policy, and programs. It has been the adopted master plan for the City since then. In 2021, staff undertook a review of the master plan based on updated traffic safety data, and for safety reasons, considered the revision of the existing Master Plan of Bikeways focusing on evaluating improvements to the corridors marked as bike routes or Type B “sharrows” in the original plan and reducing the number of sharrow bike lanes at a citywide level. The City retained the services of KOA to complete the evaluation and provide recommendations to revise the master plan. The goal of the master plan revision is to identify specific corridors on the planned bike network that would benefit from enhanced infrastructure.
The recommendations have been completed and staff requests that the City Council approve these recommendations to the Bike Master Plan.
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
TAKE the following actions:
1. APPROVE the Amendment to Master Plan of Bikeways.
2. WAIVE further reading and ADOPT Resolution No. 22-094, “A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CARSON, CALIFORNIA, APPROVING AMENDMENT TO MASTER PLAN OF BIKEWAYS.”
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III. ALTERNATIVES
1. DO NOT APPROVE the above recommendations.
2. TAKE another action the City Council deems appropriate consistent with the requirements of the law.
IV. BACKGROUND
The City of Carson Master Plan of Bikeways was adopted in August 2013 as a strategic vision for improved bicycle transportation in the city, guiding bike infrastructure, policy, and programs. The goals of the master plan were to create an environment where people of all ages and abilities feel safe biking, to make biking the most attractive option for short trips, to increase safety for all road users, and to increase economic vitality by making Carson a more livable city. The existing Master Plan of Bikeways includes corridors marked as bike route or Type B sharrows which allows cars, trucks and other vehicles to share lanes with bicycles. Given the concerns when bicycles have to share lanes, staff was directed to study the feasibility of minimizing and/or removing the sharrow lanes as an option to the bikeway systems and to amend the Master Plan of Bikeways.
The proposed amendment to the Master Plan of Bikeways was a result of analyzing existing conditions, community engagement, consideration of funding, analysis of crashes, and existing local plans and policies. The initial plan proposed a range of types of bike infrastructure throughout Carson. The proposed bike lanes included cycle tracks, bike paths, bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, colored bike lanes, and colored buffered bike lanes. The bike lanes were also sometimes paired with lane reconfigurations, including road diets and parking removal. Additionally, when no other option is available, bike routes and Type B sharrows remained on city streets except along high-speed arterial streets.
In an effort to reduce sharrow bike lanes at a citywide level, the City retained the services of KOA to complete the study and make recommendations. Several options have been evaluated to determine the most effective method to improve bike safety. The study recommends improvements that provide connectivity for bicyclists throughout Carson which requires the reconfiguration of 3.37 miles of lanes. A complete Technical Memorandum which explains the complete details of the revisions was submitted by KOA on May 12, 2022 and is attached to this staff report (Exhibit No. 2)
Staff recommends that the City Council approve the completed Amendment to the Master Plan of Bikeways which expects biking by Carson residents to improve throughout the City.
V. FISCAL IMPACT
The objective is to use this approved amendment in grant applications to the Master Plan of Bikeways for the modifications recommended, specifically the 3.37 miles, which estimated cost is $3,500,000. At this time there are no fiscal impacts.
VI. EXHIBITS
1. Resolution No. 22-094 (pgs. 4-5)
2. Technical Memorandum (pgs. 6-19)
Prepared by: Gilbert Marquez, P.E., City Engineer and Ryan Kim, P.E., Traffic Engineer