Biking Del Rey Oaks: Green lanes, sharrows, and traffic calming

Among info about Del Rey Oaks on this site, see Fort Ord Regional Trail & Greenway (FORTAG) update and Fort Ord Regional Trail and Greenway (FORTAG) Project: About the Del Rey Oaks segment.

Hey! How’d Del Rey Oaks get those new green lanes and sharrows?

Persistence, patience, and positive, vocal active transportation advocates—including Susan Ragsdale-Cronin and others—play an important role when cities are considering traffic solutions.

Who are those essential “others” in the case of these DRO improvements? Susan salutes the “concerned citizens committee of Del Rey Oaks,” who “pretty much did it all—from the funding from the ADA, to pushing it through…to implementation. They were awesome and overcame many hurdles.” She added that she feels lucky to have such caring, committed neighbors.

Citizens who served on the Traffic Committee, as identified in DRO Traffic Committee meeting minutes for 9/8/16, were Layne Buckley (recently elected to the DRO City Council), Nicole Bulich, Alexis Bunten, Megan Fitzsimmons, Mike Fitzsimmons, and Gary Kreeger. Also very active in this effort was Caitlin Baczuk.

See Del Rey Oaks Traffic Committee meeting, 12/7/16 to learn more about these recent bike infrastructure improvements, along with various traffic calming measures.

If you aren’t already, advocate for better bicycle infrastructure, appropriate legislation and law enforcement, road skills instruction opportunities, and other things that get more people bicycling—with increased safety.

How to advocate? See…

Bicycling Advocacy: What you can do!

or just contact me.

Susan has served as a volunteer on the Transportation Agency for Monterey County’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Advisory Committee and the City of Monterey’s Multi-Modal Mobility Plan Advisory Committee. She pitches in to support the Bicycling Monterey work too; see her guest post here about another avid bike commuter mom, Mindy Surratt.

Below, Susan and one of her daughters on a typical ride, from their Del Rey Oaks home to the farmers market at Monterey Peninsula College.

 

About the oft-times necessity of persistence and patience:

As Susan commented on David Schmalz’s 2/16/17 Monterey County Weekly story about Del Rey Oaks city government, “I’ve complained about the speeding for years… as a transportation biker and mom, the blowing of the stop sign from the north at the high rates of speed scared me very much.”

Follow the lead of concerned citizens of Del Rey Oaks. When it seems that something important isn’t going to change for the better, don’t give up. Persist!