Thanks so much for sponsoring the RS. I am grateful for the chance to show our community who we are: their families. I rode with a bunch of people from my street, a delightful surprise to me, and as we talked after, there were a lot of good ideas and shared concerns about improving cycling in Petaluma.
So here goes:
Those pedestrian bump outs! Do they really help pedestrians, because they sure scare me when I come upon one suddenly on my bike, sticking out into what I thought was my lane.
Roundabouts: I love them, but could the new ones you build make room for the bike lane? Today, the entering lanes narrow down for one car, much less room for the bikes that have been traveling alongside them, but I’m not sure the cars even notice the squeeze on us.
D St! OMG. Squeeze the cars and paint on bike lanes.
Furthermore, my wish list for better biking in Petaluma:
1. Good safe accessible bike parking.
2. Determine best routes to frequent destinations: library, Target, Whole Foods, Brewster, and mark them with green paint while we work on adding safe streets and trails.
3. Mark the trails we already have. If you can find a trail, it’s hard to know when to get off it to get where you‘re headed. Signage please.
4. Train, encourage, maybe invite to a bike meeting our public safety officers so they’re on our side, with a lot of concern for bike thefts, unsafe cycling and driving practices, roadwork signs unsafely erected in bike lanes, etc.
Mary Davies
mary@olympus.net