Questions for Belmont City Council Candidates

Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition is a 501c3 non-profit organization and is permitted to educate our members about where candidates for public office stand on our issues. We are not permitted to endorse candidates. Questions were developed with the SVBC San Mateo County Local Team. We emailed all the known candidates for Belmont City Council and received responses from Davina Hurt and Dwight Looi. The candidate's responses are listed following each question.1. Should bicyclists be accommodated on El Camino Real through your city? If so, how should the roadway be designed to accommodate them?Davina Hurt: Several modes of transportation should be accommodated and supported on El Camino Real. We can look to cities with successful bike programs to see how they have implemented a complete streets application. Personally, I have heard from many bicyclists that protected lanes whether by barriers or clearly outlined on the street surface are needed for safe passage. Close attention needs to be made to retrofitting, signage, and intersections. All in all, the roadway needs to be such that safety is integrated into the design and it is a pleasurable experience that will insight more and more people to get out of their cars for a better and healthier environment.Dwight Looi: Given the small number of bicyclists, I do not believe that it is wise to have a dedicated lane for bicycles. This will take away from flow capacity for cars and exacerbate congestion.2. A generation ago, half of schoolchildren walked or biked to school. Now, only 15% do. Meanwhile obesity and chronic disease linked to inactivity are soaring. How can your city help reverse these trends?Davina Hurt: While Belmont is unique in that much of the city is winding, congested, and tight hills, policy from the top down can began to change peoples minds over the benefits of tackling the difficult terrain by walking and/or biking to school. As a City Council member, I can help reverse trends of obesity and chronic disease amongst our kids by promoting and incentivize children walking and biking to school in partnership with our local school board. Additionally, we can help identify and implement safe walking paths to the various schools. Some successful campaigns are the walking school bus. We have to be creative and band as a community to defeat this issue.Dwight Looi: I believe that bicycling is an individual choice. Government should not be in the business or encouraging or discouraging it.3. How should active transportation (walking and biking) to new developments east of Highway 101 from downtown be encouraged and accommodated?Davina Hurt: Other cities have successfully created wayfinding signage to encourage and accommodate folks walking and biking to new developments. On the fun side, we can initiate monthly "Geo-caching" Contests to get people to discover the city by foot or bike. This has been a fun activity for youth and adults alike. Belmont recently invested in a grand walk/bike bridge that we can promote through the creation of walking maps to tour the various part of the city and east of Highway 101 in particular.Dwight Looi: I do not believe in explicitly encouraging or discouraging manual transportation.4. How would you work to achieve Vision Zero in your city, the goal to eliminate traffic deaths and life-altering injuries? Davina Hurt: Working to achieve Vision Zero in the City of Belmont begins with educating the community on the goals of eliminating traffic deaths and life altering injuries. We can reach out to schools, various neighborhood associations and "Bring-a-Friend" seminars conducted by folks like Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition. Second, a funding source or grants would need to be identified to make common sense changes to bring us closer to this vision. I look forward to learning more about how Belmont can lead and make a difference for its community in eliminating these tragedies.Dwight Looi: I do not believe that zero traffic deaths is possible. I favor strict enforcement and increased penalties for irresponsible driving -- especially intoxicated and/or distracted driving.5. Do you support last year's decision not to install continuous bike lanes on the length of Ralston? Why or why not?Davina Hurt: Only knowing the difficulty of limited space along Ralston to accommodate many modes of transportation and recognizing that continuous bike lanes require the elimination of lanes in certain areas, I could not fairly say whether last year's decision to not install continuous bikes lanes the length of Ralston was a good decision or not. I read the study and have may questions I look forward to get answered by the experts. I am interested in looking at the various solutions and figuring out best case scenarios for the various modes of transportation involved. Safety and traffic flowing is essential on this main thoroughfare.Dwight Looi: Actually, yes. But only because it does not decrease car lanes and moving bicyclists to the lane reduces slowdowns due to bicyclists obstructing traffic. If adding a bike lane will reduce available car lanes I will oppose it.