They've been talking about building new bike routes in Palo Alto ever since they finished the Bryant Street bicycle boulevard. And that was in the 1980s. The next big thing was supposed to be an east-west bicycle boulevard from Arastradero Preserve out to the Baylands. I'm not holding my breath. Mountain View is so much more progressive in this area.

"The existing bike boulevard on Bryant Street would be extended."

That's the phrase that confuses me. Extended to where? It pretty much runs the length of the city now. Whats missing?

I'd like to see them improve loop detection of bikes at signals. Or add more curb side push buttons so bikes can more easily cause the signal to cycle.

A good idea would be to create a map of existing bike lanes and suggested bike routes around town. This could be on the City website and available in libraries, etc. The only way to find the best bike route around town is by word of mouth - even school bike routes are not advertised well.

It took me 1 minute to find the bike map on the City website. It's from 2007, but hey, it's there.

Thanks SwimMom, this never used to be there.

Web Link

This is the only map I can find, it has no zoom capabilities and I for one can't find my way around town on this. I would like to think we can do better than this, but I agree it is better than nothing.

Actually bike routes are pretty well mapped, on bike to work day, May 13th this year, visit an energizer station and pick up hard copies of area maps.

Here is a pointer to the online bike maps on 511.org

Web Link

Resident,

Zooming is at the top of the map, see the + - and percentage.

How about resurfacing the Oregon Express approach to 101 North. It's no more than a block long, but it's a key transit location and it's so far beyond Mr. Toad's Wild Ride that it could easily pass for a mine field where all have been detonated. Teeth jarring is an understatement!

Thanks for your help, it is a lot better than I thought.

I'm all for bike lanes, but it doesn't make much sense to add a bike lane to Chaucer Street before the flooding threat of the Chaucer Street bridge is fixed.

Art - you are correct. Of course that means it will never happen since the Chaucer bridge will not be fixed in our lifetimes. Not trying to be snarky - just realistic.

If you go to the city web site, you can find pretty good PDF bike route map. Since it is in PDF format, you can easily zoom or scroll it.

The map does have some serious flaws, so be careful. For example, one way streets are not marked on the map (like Homer Ave near the bike tunnel). Also, there are some big gaps in the routes; for example there are no bike routes leading to Foothill Park or Arastradero Preserve (Palo Alto's 2 best open space areas). And the map does not show public bicycle parking racks, which anyone using their bike for shopping or commuting will want to know.

The Bryant Bicycle Boulevard does not run the length of the city. Heading south, it officially ends at Meadow Drive. There is a very convoluted and poorly marked bike route south of that, which is so bad that most people take Middlefield or Wilkie instead to get to Mountain View.

This is great news! I'm so glad that council is looking at implementing parts of the 2003 Bicycle Transportation Plan. If anyone is interested in taking a look you can find it at:

Web Link

As for the Bryant street extension; it would extend through the Eichler circles to Mountain View.

The bike lanes on Channing are rougher than many mountain bike trails. Many other streets in PA remind me of the famous Paris-Roubaix bike race over Belgium cobbles.

Bryant st. bike bvld. already connects to Mtn View bike blvd through the old HP parking lot.

What the bike blvd needs is a stop sign free route across the city and warnings for stopped cars to be on the lookout for bikes.

What kind of scoring system rates the Children’s Theatre and Art Center higher than police headquarters and two fire stations.

Isn’t public safety the #1 priority in any city government?

Elizabeth is dead on. Why don't they fix streets that obviously need repair? The government has plenty of tax money, but they waste it on useless things such as infantile class sizes and the like, meanwhile allowing our infrastructure to degrade to third world status. Bunch of inept thieves in government.

Elizabeth is dead on. Why don't they fix streets that obviously need repair? The government has plenty of tax money, but they waste it on useless things such as infantile class sizes and the like, meanwhile allowing our infrastructure to degrade to third world status. Bunch of inept thieves in government.

How do you expect the City to repair streets? They need $115,000 to pay the new Sustainability Coordinator whose job it is to find a new location Downtown for a Farmer's Market. Like we need another Farmer's Market!!! That's a budget waste if ever a saw it.

Some of the decisions can be “explained” by the city priorities: economic or financial health; environmental sustainability; emergency preparedness; land-use and transportation planning; and collaboration for youth well-being.

Pat is totally correct. The ONLY City priority should be to cut the budget to the bone, then cut even more. Marvin and Fireman may wish to weigh in here too. Agreed?

We thought the PA council was focused on saving the planet and putting an end to the horror of climate changes such as Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter--- how they let such climate change continue?

There should be a law to stop it

How can the city be out of money? According to my tax returns, my taxes have gone up.

Mike is right. Lower taxes way down as close to zero as possible and cut spending to the bone and way beyond the bone.

Mike - I'm not sure if you're serious or not. Let's say you are. The CPA problem is easy to analyze --- labor and benefits costs have gone up much faster than the CPA revenue stream. Energy costs, maintenance costs and other costs have also gone up.

Then add in the fact that many of the city departments did not set aside funds for eventual major repair projects. For example, the lack of planning for the storm water and sewage upgrades. Everyone knew it was going to happen, but no one had the guts to put money aside for the future need...so we get hit with another bond (tax) to pay for poor planning.

Every business has an "R&R" fund - repair and replacement. But we have not seen so much with CPA.

Further, CPA still allows a minority of citizens to dictate the use of operational budget on "cherished services" that may not meet the larger public's needs any longer - or has higher cost per citizen than other cities. An example would be the Palo Alto Library system. CPA has 5 branches for just under 60,000 residents...that's 1 branch per 12,000 people. San Francisco has 27 branches for well over 740,000 residents ... 1 branch per 27,000. And SF has much higher tax base due to the corporations and companies located in the Financial District. But no one at CPA has the huevos to do the right thing and pare down the libraries.

Why does CPA offer free shuttle service? The worst kept secret in CPA is that the shuttle service is a free school bus service. Why not charge $1 per rider - just a dollar. 65 or older ride free.

Our taxes are never going to go down. But the city could do a better job of lowering the number of free services or evolve them to pay services.

Report on priorities is at Web Link

Note Attachment E on pdf page 52. Priorities are defined on pdf page 58.