Exciting progress in San Mateo County

Fair readers, forgive me while this blog entry delves deep into the language of policy-wonkiness. Hopefully several of you will be interested--after all, SVBC is an organization focused on systems change.

Recently, several SVBC members, the San Mateo County Heath Department, and other advocacy group leaders were invited to meet with C/CAG staff. The purpose of the meeting was to hear the staff and consultants' thoughts on the comments they had received regarding the Countywide Bicycle & Pedestrian Plan update. The updated draft will be officially shared with the C/CAG B/PAC on July 28th.

I believe significant progress has been made. Highlights include:

• * C/CAG staff reiterated that they would provide us with a charter, or at least a clear mission statement, for the C/CAG BPAC.
• * They recognize the need to make the C/CAG function for the county overall, including other agencies such as SamTrans and the Transportation Authority (TA).
• * They added more projects overall so that the county can demonstrate greater need in MTC's regional bike plan.
• * The C/CAG staff mentioned having the TA Highway Plan incorporate complete streets policies.
• * There was discussion regarding better geographical representation on the C/CAG B/PAC.
• * They will be enhancing the piece on bike parking in the county bike/ped plan.

I look forward to continuing our work with C/CAG staff to create complete streets in San Mateo County, where everyone can safely and conveniently choose bicycling as an option.