Community Outreach On Bicycling

GOOD TURNOUT

Wednesday night nearly four dozen interested parties snuggled into the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) adjacent to Police Headquarters for a presentation by City staff and consultants on the program currently underway to study how to make Costa Mesa more bicycle-friendly.  Specifically, how to navigate by bicycle across town.

RAJA KICKS OFF
Transportation Services Manager Raja Sethuraman kicked things off, then tossed the baton to John Holloway, a consultant from the firm BTU+A, who guided the discussion/presentation from that point forward. 

HOLLOWAY TAKES THE BALL
Holloway used a PowerPoint presentation that will soon be available for viewing on the City's website.  And, throughout the room were several posters with informational displays, some of which are shown here.  If you click on the images they may be easier to read.

GOALS

 

SOME CHOICES

INTERESTED ATTENDEES
Among the attendees were former councilman and recent candidate Jay Humphrey, former candidate Tony Capitelli, and current planning commissioner Stephan Andranian, an avid bicyclist himself.  There were many other familiar faces - folks who regularly attend and participate in the discussion in important meetings.

PROVIDE INPUT
Following the presentation the attendees were asked to participate in providing information by making notes on one of several large city maps available, and by making notes and affixing colored stickers to charts on the walls.  That information, and similar data gathered from the second of these meetings will be included in the final report prepared by the consultants.

FIRST SEGMENT
This meeting dealt with the first of two cross-town elements - from Placentia to Orange Coast College via Adams Avenue.  The second meeting will deal with the segment from OCC to the Back Bay.  No mention was made about the date of that meeting

 

PART 1

 

PLACENTIA

 

ADAMS

 

TANAGER/GOLF COURSE/MESA VERDE DRIVE EAST

 

MERRIMAC

OCC PIVOTAL
I think the information on the images from the charts is pretty self-explanatory.  It was clear from the discussion that OCC is a pivotal element in this plan.  Dean Abernathy, an instructor at OCC and most recently a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission, told us that OCC staff is now working with City staff to coordinate their efforts, particularly as to how the OCC expansion plans currently underway might impact the results of this process.  He also told us that Costa Mesa has the highest bike use in the county, and that OCC's projected growth from 17,000 to 20,000 students in the near future - many of whom will likely be foreign students without automobiles, will jack up that use ratio significantly.

GOOD RESPONSE FROM ATTENDEES
From the discussions I overheard following the presentation and during the "notation" part of the meeting, it seems that most bicycle enthusiasts who attended felt this was a good step.  I'm looking forward to seeing the next step in the process, defined in one of the slides here - the next meeting.