Transportation and Public Works Commission

City transportation staff are briefing the commission on Santa Cruz METRO's Rapid Corridors Improvements Project, a $27 million upgrade to bus Routes 1 and 2 along the Soquel Avenue and Water Street/Capitola corridors between Santa Cruz and Watsonville. Inside Santa Cruz city limits the plan includes seven transit boarding islands, one flashing-beacon crosswalk at the Front Street/Trader Joe's midblock crossing, bus queue jumps and transit signal priority, plus a realignment of the Front Street/River Street intersection behind Bookshop Santa Cruz that removes the stop sign for inbound traffic. The commission is being asked to review the design and give feedback, not to approve funding or construction.

City Public Works staff want the Transportation and Public Works Commission to recommend that the City Council apply for, accept and spend money from the state's Highway Safety Improvement Program (Cycle 13) for three road safety projects. They are: Class 2 bike lanes on Frederick Street between Soquel Avenue and Broadway plus a two-way separated bike lane on La Fonda Avenue between the Park Way Path and Harbor High School; a pedestrian scramble, new curb ramps, accessible pedestrian signals, restriping, "turn hardening" and school-zone speed signs at Broadway and Seabright Avenue; and a Soquel Avenue corridor project with a lane reduction and/or parking changes between River Street South and Branciforte Avenue to make room for separated bike facilities, coordinated signals to slow traffic, and new marked crossings at Doyle, Pennsylvania and Ocean View. A yes vote sends the recommendation to the City Council to pursue the grants.