The Napa County Bicycle Coalition is excited about the shift in how the City of American Canyon works with its citizen advisors, and we applaud the newly transformed entity now known as the Open Space, Active Transportation, and Sustainability, or OSATS.
Having a bicycle advisory committee or active transportation committee (ATAC) is so essential to being a bicycle-friendly community that the League of American Bicyclists, the national organization that bestows this community designation, lists bike advisory committees as one of its ten criteria for evaluating whether a community is bicycle-friendly. That’s because creative solutions arise when citizens who have the lived experience of walking and riding their community’s streets give input into how those streets are designed. For example, the City of Napa will be implementing its first buffered bike lane, a design that resulted in part from collaborating with its ATAC.
For an ATAC to be truly that, it must advise on the designs of proposed bike/ped facilities. This is standard for ATAC workplans and is regularly done so in other Napa County jurisdictions. We recognize and respect not only the expertise of City of American Canyon staff but also their good intentions in building more complete streets. The need for citizens to review design plans is in no way a response to staff capabilities in any jurisdiction. Rather, ATACs are there to bring lived experience to designs, as well as community values. Almost always there is more than one right way to design a street, and ATACs rely on the expertise of city staff to show them the feasible options. Choosing between those options—do we remove trees to implement a bike lane; do we prefer wider vehicle lanes or a buffered bike lane with narrower vehicle lane—relies on community input.
City Council voted not only to continue this advisory committee, but to elevate it to a commission and to include Active Transportation in its name. For it to serve its purpose, it must have the opportunity to advise on bike/ped infrastructure. If it is only presented infrastructure projects after designs are final or near final, it cannot provide advice that results in substantive outcomes.
Incredible improvements can happen when cities collaborate with citizen advisors. Therefore, it is fundamental that review of designs for repaving projects, CIP street projects, and other road projects is included in OSATS’ workplan and come before OSATS on a regular basis for input.
The Napa County Bicycle Coalition is excited about the shift in how the City of American Canyon works with its citizen advisors, and we applaud the newly transformed entity now known as the Open Space, Active Transportation, and Sustainability, or OSATS.
Having a bicycle advisory committee or active transportation committee (ATAC) is so essential to being a bicycle-friendly community that the League of American Bicyclists, the national organization that bestows this community designation, lists bike advisory committees as one of its ten criteria for evaluating whether a community is bicycle-friendly. That’s because creative solutions arise when citizens who have the lived experience of walking and riding their community’s streets give input into how those streets are designed. For example, the City of Napa will be implementing its first buffered bike lane, a design that resulted in part from collaborating with its ATAC.
For an ATAC to be truly that, it must advise on the designs of proposed bike/ped facilities. This is standard for ATAC workplans and is regularly done so in other Napa County jurisdictions. We recognize and respect not only the expertise of City of American Canyon staff but also their good intentions in building more complete streets. The need for citizens to review design plans is in no way a response to staff capabilities in any jurisdiction. Rather, ATACs are there to bring lived experience to designs, as well as community values. Almost always there is more than one right way to design a street, and ATACs rely on the expertise of city staff to show them the feasible options. Choosing between those options—do we remove trees to implement a bike lane; do we prefer wider vehicle lanes or a buffered bike lane with narrower vehicle lane—relies on community input.
City Council voted not only to continue this advisory committee, but to elevate it to a commission and to include Active Transportation in its name. For it to serve its purpose, it must have the opportunity to advise on bike/ped infrastructure. If it is only presented infrastructure projects after designs are final or near final, it cannot provide advice that results in substantive outcomes.
Incredible improvements can happen when cities collaborate with citizen advisors. Therefore, it is fundamental that review of designs for repaving projects, CIP street projects, and other road projects is included in OSATS’ workplan and come before OSATS on a regular basis for input.