Could Farmers Market accident have
been prevented...

Arizona avenue's designation as a "Bicycle Blvd" was dropped from the final draft of Santa Monica Bicycle Master Plan (see figure of a Typical Bicycle Boulevard to the right) (date Jan 1995). With the designation as a "Bicycle Blvd", accident might have been prevented from occuring at the market by protective bollards/barriers used to block through traffic. Although, the accident was possibly a result of driver error and could have happened elsewhere.   (see definition from Santa Monica City document below)

A Bicycle Blvd is defined in the above mentioned memo, 
(Click Here to Read Full Memo)

"Bicycle Boulevards - These were originally proposed in the Bicycle Master Plan, but have since been eliminated. The bicycle boulevards were recommended on certain, primarily residential streets in which barriers are placed approximately every six blocks to discourage automobile through traffic. Through automobile traffic is diverted to parallel streets, leaving only local traffic and bicycles on the bicycle boulevards.".

"Bicycle Boulevards - These were originally proposed in the Bicycle Master Plan, but have since been eliminated." 

 City of Palo Alto describes a Bicycle Blvd benefits( reference):

Class III - Bicycle Boulevards
As discussed in more detail in Chapter 3, Bryant Street was redesigned to have low traffic volumes and few STOP signs and is referred to as a Bicycle Boulevard. It is recommended to expand this treatment to several new routes in the City. The roads chosen for bicycle boulevards make excellent bike routes because traffic volumes are low and speeds are slow, and together the
streets will form continuous low-stress bike routes across a good portion of the City. As originally conceived back in 1982, the purpose of a bicycle boulevard is to improve bicycle convenience and safety by having or creating one or more of the following conditions:
low traffic volumes discouragement of non-local motor vehicle traffic;
free-flow travel for bikes by assigning the right-of-way to the bicycle boulevard at traffic control to help bicycles cross major streets (arterials)
In order to improve conditions for bicycles on the recommended bicycle boulevards, therefore, the same types of measures implemented on Bryant Street may be necessary e.g. traffic control at major intersections, removal of unwarranted STOP signs, stopping side street traffic and some traffic calming. But in most cases, the routing builds upon the location of existing traffic
calming and traffic control devices. In some instances in the past, all-way STOP controls have
been used to address community concerns regarding motorists driving above the posted speed
limit. STOP signs add significantly to the travel time of bicyclists, and have been demonstrated
to be ineffective in slowing traffic speed between stops. This strategy should not be used on
designated bike routes in general and on bicycle boulevards in particular.
The following criteria were used to the select the roadways that make up the proposed new
bicycle boulevards:
    *Local street, and not a transit or truck route.
    *Spaced between � and 1� miles from another Bicycle Boulevard, 
        approximately the Reasonably continuous; (i.e., it extends over half of the cross-section of the City.)
    *Few jogs with main segments at least 0.5 mile long.
    *Traffic signals exist at major intersections or new traffic signals are feasible.


BELOW IS THE ROUTE THE CAR WAS OUT OF CONTROL RAMMIN PEOPLE

BRIGHT ORANGE IS THE AREA THAT THE WEDNESDAY MARKET 2nd St. And ARIZONA

The Bright Purple IS DESIGNATED AS CLASS II BIKE LANES (SANTA MONICA)

 

USEFUL LINKS TO BICYCLE BOULEVARD INFO:
  http://www.city.palo-alto.ca.us/bike/pdfs/AppendixF.pdf
  Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective (Valet Bicycle Parking at Farmers Market).
  Davis Farmers Market Bicycle Events
  http://www.massbike.org/bikeways/bikeboul/
  http://www.paloaltoonline.com/paw/paonline/news/2002_12_02.fletcher02.shtml
  http://www.bfbc.org/
  http://www.bpcnet.com/cgi-bin/hilite.pl/codes/portland/_DATA/TITLE16/
     Chapter_16_90_DEFINITIONS/16_90_030_Bicycle_Boulevard_.html
  http://danenet.wicip.org/bcp/bta/spokenword_0697/fairshake.html
  http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~sustwwu/trans/report/standards/standards_1/standards_1.htm
  http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/bike/pdfs/AppendixF.pdf
  http://www.bikealameda.org/info/bikeplan/Alam5.pdf
Transportation Tools to Improve Children's Health and Mobility
  http://www.dhs.cahwnet.gov/epic/documents/SR2STranspoTools.pdf 
Definition of "Bicycle Boulevard"
  http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/pw/main/bike/Appendix.pdf
  http://www.thunderheadalliance.org/doc/SCBC.doc 

 


 

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