Bikes on Board the Highway 17 Express bus service was on the agenda this morning at the Santa Cruz Metro Board meeting. People Power director Micah Posner attended the meeting and spoke on behalf of cyclists who use the Highway 17 service.

Because of input from cyclists as well as the drivers’ representative, Bonnie Moore, and Metro General Manager Les White, several board members asserted their commitment to allowing bikes on board when it’s reasonable to allow them on board.

Because of capacity issues, the board and others attending also discussed ways to mitigate the problems that are now occurring with crowding on the Highway 17 service. In addition to the existing folding bike subsidy in Santa Cruz County, the board also talked about things like a bike sharing program and additional bike storage capacity at the Santa Cruz Metro.

Les White mentioned that there are currently three openings on the citizen Metro Advisory Committee, and that cyclists are not currently represented on that committee. MAC meetings are one Wednesday a month at 6 PM. Contact People Power in Santa Cruz if you want to be on that committee.

The Highway 17 Express bus service from Santa Cruz & Scotts Valley to San Jose is operated by the Santa Cruz Metro Transit District (Metro). Metro’s policy when the bike racks are full is to allow bikes on board in the handicap seating area if there are no handicapped passengers. Bikes are not permitted in the luggage compartment underneath because the compartments can’t “accomodate both bikes and luggage” according to Metro, although the luggage compartments are used very rarely.

The Highway 17 bus service has been filled to near capacity on many trips over the last few weeks as more commuters and day trippers use the relatively inexpensive service to travel over the hill. With this increased use comes more bikes on board. Santa Cruz Metro received one customer complaint about those displaced from the handicap seating to make room for bikes on board.

In response to this complaint, the Metro Advisory Committee voted unanimously to change Metro policy and prohibit bikes on board after September 2008. The Santa Cruz Metro Board must still approve this policy.

I’ve alerted People Power Santa Cruz and have phone calls to the Santa Cruz Metro board and staff about this. As soon as I get a response and find out what to do about this I’ll post an update.

The city of Santa Cruz is studying the possibility of enhancing King Street as a bicycle route and an alternative over Mission Street. King Street is a residential collector running approximately parallel to Mission Street from near High Street in the north/east to Swift Street at the south/west.

King has a 25 mph speed limit; actual speeds range from 25 to 29 mph. While King is a favored bike route today, traffic volume is heavy enough and the road narrow enough that motorists must frequently wait to pass cyclists who take the lane on King.

On Wednesday, June 25th, the city will host a public hearing to discuss the draft King Street Bikeway plan [PDF]. The meeting starts at 7pm and will be held in the Police Department Community Room at 155 Center Street in Santa Cruz.

On the agenda will be three options for King Street. People Power Santa Cruz supports two of the options and opposes the third.

• People Power supports option 1, which is placement of five foot bike lanes to enable motorists to operate independently of bicyclists in the same direction. This option requires either the removal of parking on one side of the street, or widening the street to make room for the bike lanes.
• People Power Santa Cruz also supports option 2, which is making King Street a “bicycle boulevard” by reducing motor vehicle traffic volume with traffic calming features such as barriers that allow bikes through but not cars. Diverting 5000 vehicles per day from King onto neighboring streets will increase already heavy traffic volume on the adjacent streets. I can anticipate heavy opposition for this option from residents on neighboring streets.
• People Power opposes an “option 3”, which is really a part of Option 1 in the draft plan. This is a daytime only parking prohibition along King Street. Parking is prohibited during the day — this parking area becomes a clear bike lane for cyclist use. In the evenings, cyclists use King Street like they do today, by taking the lane. The planners state they see this “option 3” as an interim solution until funding can be obtained to widen King Street for bike lanes.

Other elements of the draft plan include discussion of door zones, removing stop signs to encourage more cyclists on King Street, “encouraging safe lateral positioning” (aka “taking the lane”) through the use of sharrows and other pavement markings, signs on Mission to inform cyclists of a “Mission Street Bypass,” and encouraging caution by motorists by removing the centerline on King.

Read the Santa Cruz King Street bicycle route draft plan here [PDF].

Seen at the Santa Cruz Bike Church.

Josh Muir, owner of Frances Cycles in Santa Cruz, organized the Santa Cruz Wildcat alleycat race that took place last weekend. The Wildcat featured all of the traditional alleycat things — checkpoints, spoke cards, scavenger hunt, a total disregard for traffic laws and personal property, etc. — as well as some uniquely Santa Cruz features: probably 2000 feet of elevation gain, redwood forest singletrack, rock gardens, deep beach sand, a lighthouse and a river ford.

I was DNF — I made it to the checkpoint in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, where we had to carry our bikes and gear through the San Lorenzo River before skipping a rock. The next checkpoint was at the top of the U-Conn trail, but I had to meet my family at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk in a half hour so I handed my ice cream off to another rider and cycled down into Santa Cruz.

I’ll have my photos from the Wildcat later this week, but click on the photos above for a wonderful set of portraits taken from the UCSC trails.