Capitola to Develop it's First Active Transportation Plan

On the heels of the April adoption by the City of Santa Cruz of a major update to that city's Active Transportation Plan, or ATP, the City of Capitola is developing its first ATP. ATPs have become essential public policy tools that enable local governments to secure grants to fund street infrastructure redesigns that benefit all forms of human-powered transportation. The Capitola ATP project is itself funded by a grant from the Caltrans Sustainable Transportation Planning program.

Like other ATPs, the Capitola plan is driven by a goal of creating a livable city—one where people of all ages and abilities can move safely, conveniently, and enjoyably. Well-designed active transportation infrastructure not only encourages healthier lifestyles, but also reduces car dependency and greenhouse gas emissions, creates vibrant public spaces, and strengthens social connections. BSSC board members Anthony Duran and Stephen Svete will be serving on the Technical Advisory Committee during the course of the 18-month project.  

Capitola is encouraging community input on the ATP, and you can participate in the initial map-based information gathering survey below.

What Canberra and Australia Can Teach Us About Bikes, Paths, and Public Space

I spent part of this May in Canberra, Australia, visiting family. Canberra is the capital of Australia, and in some ways it feels like a cross between Washington, D.C. and Sacramento: a planned capital city, orderly, civic-minded, and landlocked several hours inland from the ocean.

As I tend to do in almost any city I visit, I found myself looking for the bike lanes. I like seeing how other places think about transportation, what they make easy, what they make hard, and how much room they are willing to give people who are not inside cars.

It took me about 3 days to make heads or tails of traffic because of the whole left-hand driving thing. But once I got past that, what stood out was how normal biking felt.

Canberra is not Amsterdam. It is still a car-oriented city. But biking is clearly part of the culture. The city has an extensive network of off street paths, on-road bike lanes, and quieter streets that make it possible to move through large parts of the city without constantly mixing with fast traffic.

My family there has two kids, and they bike to school and work with minimal interaction with cars. The part that stuck with me most is that kids are getting places, and parents not having to drive every trip, and biking feeling like a practical part of family life. 

The paths around Lake Burley Griffin, the large lake at the center of Canberra, show the potential of a connected public path system. They connect parks, museums, government buildings, neighborhoods, nature reserves and public spaces. People walking, riding, commuting, exercising, and sightseeing all overlap. It’s beautiful, and you are likely to see kangaroos boinging around the trails, alongside rainbow parrots, squawking cockatoos, and many species of eucalyptus in their natural habitat.

I learned about Australia’s rail trails from my family’s elderly neighbor. He and his wife of course still bike around town. After establishing that our political viewpoints aligned, then there’s no need to discuss the war, he told me about the former rail corridors across the country that have been turned into long-distance walking and biking routes. The Great Victorian Rail Trail runs about 134 kilometers through Victoria’s High Country. The Brisbane Valley Rail Trail in Queensland is about 161 kilometers. The Northern Rivers Rail Trail in New South Wales is being built out in stages, with the open Tweed section through villages, farmland, bridges, and tunnels. These rail trails are integrated public access projects, tourism projects, heritage projects, and rural economic development projects. They preserve the public corridors and turn them into integrated experiences for tourists and practical travel for locals.

Canberra’s bike paths and Australia’s rail trail network showed me how connected paths can change what is possible. A bike path that gets you from point A to point B is a nice amenity. A connected network is transportation that links neighborhoods, schools, parks, businesses, and towns. It becomes part of how people move through a place and it also can invite visitors and tourists to experience these places at their own pace on a bike or hike.

What can my experience bring back to our beautiful Santa Cruz County? We have our own debates, geography, constraints, and opportunities. However, the basic principle is the same. When we build safe, connected, low-stress routes, more people can bike: kids, parents, older adults, commuters, visitors, and people who would never describe themselves as “cyclists.” Biking can be an ordinary activity woven into daily life. And Australia’s rail trails show the inspiring possibilities when rail corridors are treated as civic assets. 

-Mikey Cohen, BSCC Board Chair