tMo
By Tom Modugno of Goleta
Today is the Big Day.
This is the day a lot of people have been waiting for, and a lot of people have been dreading. Today the Goleta City Council, Paula Perotte, Stuart Kasdin, James Kyriaco, Roger Aceves and Kyle Richards, decide whether or not to change the layout of Hollister Avenue through Old Town Goleta.
Over half a century has passed since the layout of Hollister has been changed. When Lake Cachuma was completed and Goleta had a huge housing boom, Highway 101 was widened and they made Hollister 4 lanes, to accommodate all the additional traffic that a housing boom would bring. Common sense.
Today, some of the city council wants to narrow Hollister back down to where it was before 1960. Despite the fact that they have approved over 1,300 new housing units in the past eight years. They are going to narrow the road. After gorging on housing, they are now going to put us on a road diet. Common Sense?
Some might ask, where will all those cars that use Hollister every day going to go instead? Will all those people jump onto bikes? Start taking the bus? Walk across Goleta? No, probably not. Common sense tells us they will go to other roads in Goleta via the already crowded Fairview and Patterson overpasses. Then they will get on the freeway, or Calle Real, or just go through the neighborhoods on Cathedral Oaks. Thereby affecting all of Goleta’s traffic and safety.
Shouldn’t they complete an alternate route first, like they’ve been talking about for decades? And shouldn’t they complete the other pending construction projects on Hollister first? Common sense would say, yes.
So, why are they doing this?
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To slow traffic down on Hollister. Common sense would ask, wouldn’t just more law enforcement do that?
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To add 20 new parking spaces. Common sense would ask, all this money, time and effort for 20 parking spaces? Is it worth it?
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To make bike lanes. And there’s the real answer. It is all about the bike lanes. Not the speed, not the parking, the bike lanes. Some of the council are very heavily influenced by the Bike Coalition. An angry, loud group of people, most of which don’t ever really go to Old Town, but they really want this bike lane. So, the council is voting to inconvenience thousands of car driving citizens every day just so less than 100 bike riders a day can choose to ride through Old Town if they want. Common sense?
Let them know your thoughts:
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Letmego, I love bicycles (and some bicyclists, including myself!) Much better streets for bicycling are in Old Town, north of Hollister. However, I do not bicycle from Santa Barbara to Goleta but I do drive there to do some shopping, sometimes enroute to CostCo, Best Buy, etc., pausing in Old Town, wanting to support local shops, as much as possible.
Why do _you_ insist on biking on the main business throughfare … or is the real goal to have Hollister be like State Street, with all the hostility that has brought about, in good part because so many bicyclists think it should be all theirs?
Well, I don’t insist so much as … I have a 10 mile bike commute from SB to Goleta (and back). To avoid Hollister turns it into 12 miles and adds 10 minutes or more, as it requires going through UCSB. Then, during the school year, you are dodging UCSB students and employees also.
54 minutes vs. 64 minutes…54 minutes is going to win every time.
I attended the packed meeting at the Goleta community center and majority there were supportive of this project.
A major reason to do this long-planned and discussed project is to save lives. According to the Goleta Bicycle Pedestrian Master Plan, this stretch of road is the worst in all of Goleta with a huge number of bike and pedestrian collisions, and this only includes serious injuries with emergency response. See pg 3 of
https://www.cityofgoleta.org/home/showpublisheddocument/21391/636784125531700000
While I personally preferred the options that put the bike paths inside the parking spots, any improvement here is long overdue and this will be better than the current status quo, which is dangerous for bikers, pedestrians and cars alike. It is also not business-friendly to be on such a dangerous street with so many lanes. Even parking on one side of the street to get to the other side is currently a risky and unpleasant experience.
The current situation in Old Town and Hollister is NOT city road design best practice.
I look forward to one day being able to bike to nearby Old Town to patronize businesses rather than being forced to drive there because it is currently so unsafe.
Of course the meeting went that way. Who would you think it would draw? Rabid bike riders. The rest of us are tired and many are lethargic b/c they don’t think an idea that crazy will happen. If it does, it’ll screw up traffic, as predicted, people will get annoyed and it will take 10 years to get it back to a thoroughfare.
Dear Tom M. Thank you for the links to the Council Members. I sent off my emails just now. As a driver and a bicyclist, I agree that better law enforcement is key. Every time one bicycles anywhere in traffic, the chance is taken that you’re putting yourself in harm’s way. Ticket the speeders and cell phone yakkers. Narrowing Hollister Ave in Old Town is a poor solution.
I love the plan! Thanks for bringing up the obvious, we need safer corridors for cyclists.
True, just not on one of only 3 arterial routes. Bikers should us the back streets in this area or bike paths extended south of Hollister for a connection. A bunch of confusing paint and bottlenecking a major escape route in times of emergency would be a dangerous choice.
There is only about 1000 feet of land separating South Kellogg Ave at the Drive In Theater from Fairview/Fowler Road. In fact, utilizing the back side of the Drive-in property their is only about 500 feet where South Kellogg could be connected to Placencia Street that meets at Fairview and Fowler.
This is a MUST for creating a long needed and necessary thoroughfare that would be incredibly useful and sensible. To not consider this as coupled to repainting Hollister is at best lazy. Move forward with this project as is in an area already over exposed to traffic will only make everything immensely worse. Not to mention stop anyone not living there from wanting to drive through. Good luck businesses!
“Good luck, businesses”, is exactly right, Haskell’s Local, if this ruinous to local businesses goes through. Perhaps local old town residents will quickly get the hang of the back in parking but Santa Barbarans — and, yes, Santa Barbarans DO shop in old town — will just avoid that section of Hollister. Others will take the back routes to Fairview to shop and snack on Fairview or Calle Real.
At least, the city fathers (and one mother) are having this meeting BEFORE the election so Goletans can know who’s in favor and who’s against, although the deluge of ads from one of the councilpeople will probably push him through.
Why do you people all hate bicyclists? Three members of my family (2 adults and a high schooler) bike through old town during our commute, 2-3 days a week. I was almost hit just 2 weeks ago by a car that just HAD to be past me, right before (literally 5 seconds) I got the bike lane back. I’m not even part of the “bicycle coalition” – I drive far more than I bike. But I don’t want to die doing it!!
As a long time but former bicyclist I can assure you that I do not “hate bicyclists” but I do object to the entitlement they think is righteously theirs. Somehow they have cloaked themselves in glory because they believe they are superior to other lower mortals that DRIVE CARS. First, understand that not all humans are capable of bicycling for everyday duty. Second, understand that people who do not do bicycle are still capable of loving the earth and environment. Third, learn that the choice to bicycle is yours, others have rights too. Finally, admit that a huge percentage of the folks on bicycles on any given day are recreational. They should not have priority over people using other vehicles to make a living, responding to emergencies, tending to their families, and doing normal life things.
Being an environmentalist doesn’t equal riding a bicycle. Knees, hips, age, carrying things or transporting kids makes it impossible. Many of us
When there is a blockage on the freeway inevitably the alt route becomes Hollister- That in and of itself becomes a mess- To reduce the lanes will only muck up that access even further!!!
If the goal is to make Old Town more beautiful and consumer friendly, take a page out of cities where they’ve taken steps to clean up the streets and storefronts first, THEN look at single lanes each way- If Hollister wasn’t a thoroughfare for alt traffic snarls then by all means knock yourselves out!!
Really bad idea. Back-in parking will have those who own older carsw/o back up cameras or who are older themselves with stiffer necks see-sawing back and forth into what will be one-lane traffice to gain 20 actual spaces. Why not reroute the bike traffic to back streets, not screw up Goleta like downtown SB did and save the money for something useful?
I guess Mr. Modugno is all for status quo. Anything to disrupt his Goleta local way of life is a threat to his stability. In reality, Mr. Modugno rides his bike all over the hills and Los Padres but no body really knows if he ever rides his bike on a city street.
We live in the area of de la vina that has been taken down to one lane. It is a huge problem. There are times we have such a hard time getting out of our driveway. Total disruption on all the downt own streets. Maybe see 15 bikes per day that’s it. Go around and ask those living and working how they hunk it’s working.