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La Cañada to draw up bike plan

A bicyclist makes his way down Oak Grove Drove past Foothill Boulevard.The city is putting together a bike transportation plan.
(Roger Wilson / Staff Photographer)
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La Cañada Flintridge is putting together a bicycle transportation plan as it does a complete update of the city’s General Plan for the first time since 1995.

The City Council will host a meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday looking at the circulation element of the General Plan, a sort of city constitution that sets municipal policy.

The circulation element of the plan guides the city’s decisions regarding its major thoroughfares and transportation routes. Time permitting, Monday’s meeting will see the council proceed to review noise and safety issues.

Fred Buss, the city’s senior planner, said the city will have to update its plans for managing vehicle use and congestion to match the increased amount of traffic that runs through La Cañada now compared to the 1990s, when the circulation element of the General Plan last was updated.

“The background information has changed, and that brings up issues of levels of service and what we want to set,” Buss said.

Congestion is measured on a scale from A — free-flowing traffic — to F — long queues of traffic. As of 2008, 16 of 20 La Cañada road segments studied by the city were rated “A.”

Two segments of Foothill Boulevard, east of Ocean View Boulevard and east of Hillard Avenue, earned a “B.” Two other parts of Foothill, east of Verdugo Boulevard and east of Gould Avenue, were rated “C.”

The city considered creating a bicycle transportation plan in 1995, but decided against it. One reason to draw up a plan is to qualify for more funds from the State Bicycle Transportation Account to improve bike paths and facilities in the city, according to a staff report.

Another objective of the circulation plan is to identify additional safe and convenient locations for pedestrians to cross Foothill Boulevard.

When the topic turns to noise, Buss said, the city would look at the longstanding concerns about the volume of sound coming from traffic on the Foothill (210) Freeway.

Once the City Council is finished reviewing the individual elements of the General Plan, city staff will revise it to fit their suggestions, as well as suggestions made by the public that the council chooses to incorporate, and the plan will come back to the council for final adoption.

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