Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee Meeting

I attended the Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee meeting at City Hall on Monday, January 9th at 2:30pm. The major topics discussed included bicycling, safe passing and the new Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (Bicycle Mobility Concepts). The meeting began with a call to minutes and an enlightening presentation by Jeffrey Pollack on the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan. Jeffrey Pollack, from HDR Engineering, presented a short presentation on the proposed plans on integrating mobility within our community. The study, funded by a 2.7 million dollar block grant in direct allocation Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) funds from the Department of Energy (DOE), basically breaks the city into 9 “destination nodes”. The nodes are areas within the city, such as downtown, that are focal points of community growth that allow for easy access and the ability to park and walk or ride to any destination within that area. This is in co ordinance with the US Department of Transportation to double the percentage of trips made by foot and bicycle in the US and reduce the number of injuries and fatalities suffered by cyclists and pedestrians by ten percent. The planning effort also considers strategies to enhance the efficiency with which people and goods move within the social equity while protecting natural resources and promoting public health and safety.

Fortunately, the plan recognized the Hike/Bike Trails as a mode of transportation alternatives as well as recreational opportunities to promote public health and wellness. Historically, the North side of Corpus Christi has drainage directed towards the bay, whereas, the South side drains to the Oso through ditches. So road expansion is limited on the North Side. However, on the South side, due to the nature of ditches, there is room for widened roadways and trails.

“Road Diets” is another concept of the plan which involves removing unneeded lanes from target roadways and rededicating the space for other travel modes or uses, such as on-street bike lanes or parking. This help to promote public health and safety by reducing vehicle speeds and creating a safer environment for pedestrians and cyclists, all while making traffic operations more efficient.

One point of the study recognized the affordability of housing in Corpus Christi, but when you add the costs of transportation, we are “way above the national average”. That’s apparent by the present high volume of traffic that we experience every day, just to go to the grocery store, for example. It’s apparent the Corpus Christi has a long way to go to integrate mobility within our community in an effort to stimulate low cost transportation such as walking and cycling.

There will be a Town Hall Type meeting scheduled for January 24th at 6:30pm located in the Sunrise Mall with Jeffrey Pollack to discuss the new Integrated Community Sustainability Plan in more detail.