Alta Report Released: What Now For Horton Street?

Council Spent $200 K On New Bike Study, Will Results Be Honored?

The Emeryville city council authorized spending $200,000 last summer for a now completed study to aid in the preparation of a new bicycle/pedestrian plan for the city but previous votes against the Horton Street bike boulevard by council members have cause some Bike Committee members to question the council's commitment to biking there.
The study, which calls for limiting auto traffic on bike boulevards including Horton Street was finished this week and will be deliberated by the Bike/Pedestrian Committee on Monday.  The Committee is expected to vote to adopt study findings into a new bike/pedestrian plan for the whole city, replacing the previous plan from 1998.

If the Bike/Pedestrian Committee votes as they have before, it will be the third time in five years they have voted to limit auto traffic on Horton Street for safety but twice before the council has overridden the committee's votes.

Horton Street has turned out to be a very contentious thoroughfare.  Bike committee members have expressed frustration that the council, in addition to Nora Davis and Ken Bukowski on the Traffic Committee and to whom the bike committee is subordinate, keeps torpedoing their goals to increase safety for Horton Street, the last quiet north/south running route available for bikes.
In fact, the council, under pressure from developers on the street such as Wareham Development, has voted to widen Horton Street and add even more cars there to the detriment of safe biking.

The public is invited to attend the first public viewing of the long anticipated Alta study at the Bike/Pedestrian committee meeting in the basement "garden" room at City Hall on Monday April 4th at 5:30 pm.