The Napa County Bicycle Coalition supports the recommendations made in the Fehr & Peers City of American Canyon 2022 Engineering and Traffic Survey, particularly those that recommend lowering speed limits in residential neighborhoods, school zones, and other AB43-compliant locations. We strongly support the reduction of speed limits in school zones as a step towards improving student bicyclist and pedestrian safety, especially on Benton Way where a 15-mph speed limit is recommended given the multiple community destinations in that area. Speeding was one of the top concerns identified by school stakeholders in American Canyon during our Safe Routes to School Walk Audits, and many of the streets identified in that process are included in this traffic survey – including Benton Way, the Donaldson Way corridor, Elliott Drive and Newell Drive.

NCBC also applauds and supports Fehr & Peers’ recommendations throughout the survey to implement traffic-calming features on multiple road segments to improve compliance with lowered speed limits or lower the 85-percentile speed on streets where egregious speeding occurred. Lowering speed limits is a great step toward creating safer streets for all road users and should be followed by roadway design changes such as traffic-calming to make the roads self-enforcing for the speeds that the City sets.

Finally, we would like to highlight and express our full support for the recommendation to upgrade the bicycle facilities on West American Canyon Road to Class IV protected bike lanes (as recommended in the City of American Canyon Bike Plan) or Class I shared-use paths. Even with the speed limit reduction from this survey, these upgraded bicycle facilities will provide separation necessary for a low-stress bicyclist experience on this road. Low-stress bicycle facilities and networks are crucial for making riding a bicycle accessible and comfortable for all ages and abilities, as these types of facilities are suitable for the roughly 50% of the public who fall into the “Interested but Concerned” bicyclist audience.

If councilmembers or city staff have any questions or would like to discuss these comments further, please contact NCBC Program Manager Carlotta Sainato at csainato@napabike.org. Thank you for your time and consideration.