An East Salinas business owner told me that the infrastructure changes on East Market Street mean it takes them about five minutes longer to get to work, as of March 5, 2018. For that reason, many people allow additional time for their driving commutes on East Market, or they take an alternate route.

Most don’t mind, because they feel it’s worthwhile to have made East Market Street safer for children, teens, and adults who walk or bike.

See one such teen, and learn about the infrastructure changes, below.

A father who lives with his wife and children on East Market Street reported to Bicycling Monterey, “My four-year-old used to dive to the floor when he heard cars or trucks driving past the front of our house, the vehicles were so fast and noisy. Our neighborhood is safer and more peaceful because of the East Market Street infrastructure improvements—not only for people walking, biking, and driving, but for many people, like us, who live right alongside East Market.”

The boy above is biking in the new

buffered bike lane on East Market Street, Salinas.

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Some Protected Bike Lanes will be among improvements celebrated at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Salinas on August 28, 2017. The City of Salinas website states that among infrastructure improvements are “Class II and IV Bike Lanes: Installation of painted bike lanes with buffers for additional separation from vehicle travel lanes on the north and south sides of East Market Street.”

Children attending Fremont Elementary and El Sausal Middle School are among people who will benefit from these East Market Street transportation infrastructure improvements.

Related info on the Bicycling Monterey site

There’s too much related information on this site to begin listing it here! Perhaps start with Bike to School – Elementary, middle, and high school resources in Monterey County or Children and Teens Growing Up Bikewise. Check out East Salinas / the Alisal. At the end of the Bike Salinas section of the Tips for Bicycling Monterey County guide, there’s a list of just a sampling of Salinas posts on the Bicycling Monterey website, from Monterey Park Cycling: For South Salinas kids, “Your community is your classroom,” and you get to class by bike! to Salinas Youth Leading the Way in Monterey County Bike Community Firsts to Bike Salinas: Where are street improvements needed? to En memoria de Rogelio Vásquez López (1982-2015). Rogelio was killed in a bike-truck collision on East Market Street at Kern, the location pictured below.

And mark your calendar for October 15, 2017, the fifth date for Ciclovía Salinas, still Monterey County’s only Open Streets!

Photo below: East Alisal Street—parallel and one block over from Market Street—is the route for Ciclovía Salinas.