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Advocate for active transportation—bicycling and more—in Salinas, and elsewhere in Monterey County

For a 1 July 2024 update to this post, previously published 2 September 2022, refer to the following PDF. Note that the deadline to share your opinion is Wednesday, August 14, 2024. Info is provided in Spanish and English, and the contact, Gino Garcia, is bilingual. Please visit https://letsmodo.org/planning-safe-streets/salinas/, then contact Gino with any questions.

1-July-2024-update-Public-input-solicited-DRAFT-Salinas-Active-Transportation-Plan-Download

The info below was previously published 2 September 2022 and has not been updated.

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If our world is to have public streets that are safe, appealing, and accessible to all, it’s vital to get input from each area’s own active transportation users—the people who bike, walk, skate, or scoot there. It’s also helpful to hear from people who’d like to use active transportation, if only the infrastructure were better!

Tell decision-makers your ideas about transportation infrastructure needs where you live or travel. For various Monterey County communities, see how to get notifications; for Transportation Agency for Monterey County, see why and how to speak up.

We appreciate when there are special opportunities to give input, or even to hear follow-up reports. In the yellow boxes below, find some ongoing and upcoming opportunities to give input to the City of Salinas regarding the Active Transportation Plan, Alisal Vibrancy Plan, General Plan, and more.

NOTE: This post was published 2 Sept 2022, and some links in it may have changed. The following are updated links for City of Salinas, as of 8 August 2023. Also see Bike Buzz: Autumn 2023 for info on a Salinas workshop scheduled for 2 November 2023.
https://www.cityofsalinas.org/Your-Government/Find-a-Department/Public-Works/Traffic-and-Transportation-Engineering
https://www.cityofsalinas.org/Your-Government/Find-a-Department/Public-Works/Traffic-and-Transportation-Engineering/Active-Transportation

To view the Mastodon post below, scroll sidebar within this post.

You may also be interested in our “Bicycling Advocacy: What you can do.”

A report by the City of Salinas Traffic Engineer on September 7, 2022, Andrew Easterling [who moved in July 2023 to a position at City of Monterey] at the regular meeting of the Transportation Agency for Monterey County (TAMC) Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Advisory Committee is about a project known as the Alisal Complete Streets Project. That project is specific to just a portion of Alisal Street—West Alisal and Alisal in the downtown area, that is, Alisal Street between Front Street and Blanco Road.

What about East Alisal Street? Refer to yellow boxes below.

The public is welcome to attend TAMC bike-ped meetings. Meetings are currently held remotely, meaning you can attend via Zoom or via telephone. For how to participate—and to view the meeting’s full agenda and information packet, including the 23-page “Alisal Street Complete Streets Before and After Study”—click on the PDF linked directly below:

https://www.tamcmonterey.org/files/ef0691e09/BPC_Agenda_PACKET_September_2022_Meeting.pdf

For opportunities to provide input early in the decision-making process regarding bicycling and other active transportation planning for Salinas, the Monterey County seat and its largest city, scroll down to the next yellow box.
  1. The City of Salinas General Plan is currently being updated. This is a long-range planning document that will guide how the city grows over the next twenty years. It includes a circulation element, which will establish how Salinas roads and bicycle paths will look. Jon Moore is the lead on this effort and can provide information on upcoming opportunities to participate; email jonathanm@ci.salinas.ca.us. The City’s General Plan was last updated in September 2002; refer to: https://www.cityofsalinas.org/our-government/information-center/general-plan-info
  2. The City of Salinas will be updating its Active Transportation Plan. The intention is to begin work on this plan early in 2023, with the City’s Traffic Engineer Andrew Easterling as the project lead. [Easterling, as of July 2023, is now working for City of Monterey.] The Traffic Engineer will appreciate input from people who bike, walk, skate, or scoot—or even from people who’d like to, if the infrastructure were safer (e.g., if there were Class IV separated bikeways ).
  3. The City of Salinas is planning to refine the Alisal Vibrancy Plan and develop a specific streetscape plan for East Alisal Street, East Market Street, Sanborn Road, and Williams Road. This will be the next step towards developing a final design. As of September 2, 2022, this effort has not started yet. Once it begins, Maria Contreras, who will be the project lead, will be able to provide you with information. Meanwhile, for related info, check out the City’s special site, https://www.alisalvibrancyplan.org.
Contact information for City of Salinas staff

Contact info for City of Salinas staff may or may not be found in the City’s online staff directory (https://www.cityofsalinas.org/directory), which is not always up-to-date.

Here’s how to contact the City of Salinas staff referred to above:

Visit the City of Salinas website for related information, such as the following. Be aware that the City’s website, again, may not include the most current info.
You may also be interested in the City of Salinas:

Strategic Plan 2022-2025: https://www.ci.salinas.ca.us/sites/default/files/2022-2025_strategic_plan_final.pdf

How to participate in Salinas City Council meetings, make a public comment, etc. https://www.cityofsalinas.org/our-government/city-council, e.g., regarding the 10/4/22 presentation on the Alisal Complete Streets Before and After Study https://www.cityofsalinas.org/our-government/city-council/events/city-council-meeting-142
Salinas info on the Bicycling Monterey website

Since 2009 we have highlighted Salinas in hundreds of posts on this site. Links to a sampling are provided at the end of “Bike Salinas, the Monterey County seat.“

As widower Dan Langenkamp said after his wife was killed (video clip below):


“It’s unbelievable to me that we have to brave streets with bike lanes that are dangerous and get mowed down by trucks in modern America….It’s just wrong, and I’m actually just livid about the situation with bicycle safety here….

“You cannot just paint lines on roads and think that you have bike lanes and then brag about it on your website, city website, or whatever, saying ‘We have 500 miles of bike lanes.’ No, those bike lanes are just death traps if you don’t provide protection for them [e.g., Class IV lanes with a substantial physical barrier], if you don’t provide driver training [e.g., https://bikemonterey.org/truck-bus-bicycle.html, https://twitter.com/BikeMonterey/status/1528523303668703232?s=20&t=IfltFJvox-4XBW7Fk5cahw, https://twitter.com/BikeMonterey/status/1484028397546205184?s=20&t=FyfsFJVlckvl8ipGI7Vs3g, if you don’t provide also laws and law enforcement that actually says people are going to be punished if they hit bikers.”
https://twitter.com/BikeMonterey/status/1566528784374702080?s=20&t=FyfsFJVlckvl8ipGI7Vs3g

This post was previously published 2 September 2022 and has not been updated in its entirety. It has been republished 2 July 2024 to bring attention to the request for public input on the City of Salinas draft Active Transportation Plan.

This post was published on 2 July 2024.

One Comment

  1. Edith Frederick says:
    4 October 2022 at 18:30

    Please, as a city council, submit a Resolution supporting HR3339 NIB, National Infrastructure Bank bill making available $5 Trillion using already existing public investments in Treasury bills to capitalize the bank, so no new taxes nor debt. This enables Salinas to get low interest loans for all our infrastructure needs.

    Schedule a zoom info and Q&A meeting with the Consortium for NIB info@nibcoalition.com to learn how FDR used such a bank to build our infrastructure after the Great Depression. The Consortium will provide copies of Resolutions already passed by various local CA gov’t groups as a template. They will answer all your questions assuring us that all our infrastructure projects will be approved.
    Thank you for supporting this proven past success to insure a brighter future for our youth.

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