The Barron Park Association

The Matadero Bicycle Boulevard plan is moving ahead. The recent June 19th meeting with consultants and Jaime Rodriguez and other staff was devoted to creating / enabling / enhancing other routes (not boulevards) for bicycling in Barron Park, but Jaime provided some information afterward on the status of the plan for the Matadero (Margarita) Bicycle Boulevard.

The proposal for the bicycle boulevard followed two Barron Park community meetings, in May and September of 2013. Images of the design concept were previously posted on the Barron Park Association website, Initial Concept Plan for Matadero – Margarita Bike Boulevard » The Barron Park Association   To reduce automobile speeds, and enhance bicycle and pedestrian safety, Matadero will have a number of speed humps and also a speed table (raised cross walk across Matadero from Tippawingo to Josina) .

The current plan provided by Jaime Rodriguez can be downloaded here. Basemap – Matadero Bike Blvd – Final Speed Hump Sites – 053014 The locations for the speed humps have been finalized [look at the orange outlined rectangles with single chevron in the attached pdf]. What’s not certain is the date for when the work will be begin.

Currently, as you are all too well aware, the Matadero Ave roadway is a real mess, most recently a consequence of the Utilities Department’s gas line replacement program. This work was supposed to have been completed by end of June, but there are still quite a number of steel plates covering holes. Hopefully, this work will be completed within the next few weeks. In addition to the the gas line work, the sewer line replacement repairs have left many scars on the roadway. Because of the present roadway condition, Jaime said that the Public Works will apply a ‘slurry seal’ to the entire length of Matadero, from El Camino to Laguna.

The slurry seal will cover the painted roadway markers, including the yellow center line. The initial Bicycle Boulevard plan had been to leave the yellow line in place. But, as discussed in the June 19th meeting, there are two schools of thought about the yellow line – one is that it keeps the lanes of traffic clearly marked and makes people slow down; the other is that by keeping traffic in the lane, cars are less willing to cross it and instead pass too closely to bicyclists and pedestrians. Jaime said that he is open to repainting the yellow lines if eliminating it turns out to cause issues and the community is not happy with the situation.

One further issue – Jaime acknowledged the many concerns voiced by residents about pedestrian safety along Matadero, especially near the Matadero Creek bridge, just past the Tippawingo intersection.  Here is an image from the file of the plan proposed for that location (click on the image to bring up a full size, clear image – then on your back button on your browser to return to the message):

One possible improvement for pedestrian safety, which Jaime is discussing with  Matt Brunnings (Public Works), would result from the removal of a storm water drain on Matadero near the bridge. Removal of the storm water drain would permit the city to move the metal guard rail in, towards the Creek and away from the roadway, and provide additional room for pedestrians to walk safely in that area. But removal of the drain entails a series of steps that have to happen and all pieces have to fall into place before this proposal becomes a reality. Look for work “By Others” on this figure (2nd panel in the pdf if you download it).  This storm drain receives water from the valley gutter that runs along Matadero and crosses the end of Tippawingo. So removing the storm drain, and the valley gutter leading to it that crosses Tippawingo, would require an alternate path for the runoff – one possibility would be a new section of valley gutter that would wrap around the Matadero-Tippawingo corner, joining with one on Tippawingo that leads to a storm drain at the corner of Tippawingo and Chimalus. This part of the plan is still in the discussion phase between the Transportation Division and Public Works.

Art Liberman