By Joni Martin
I have created a petition urging the Regional Transportation Commission, in light of the recent tragic death of one of our young community members, to identify a safe pedestrian/cyclist route along the Highway 9 Corridor as its top priority for our community among many projects being considered for this area. I am also requesting that the official “safe route” be dedicated in the memory of the young man who recently died along that stretch of road. The petition was created with the blessing of Josh’s mother, who would love to see the safe route dedicated in his memory. Here is another look at all the priorities the RTC has been weighing in their draft plan for our area identified by the community as potential improvements: https://sccrtc.org/projects/streets-highways/hwy-9-plan#draftreport
The proposed “safe pedestrian/cyclist route” that addresses the
area where Josh’s accident took place is listed as “Project 9 on the
draft report; it’s on pages 3/25 and 3/26).
Residents of San Lorenzo Valley have expressed concern about
pedestrian and bicyclist safety along Highway 9 for over a decade.
We have done this in gatherings organized by the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC), by our County Supervisor, and other
individuals in our community. Thankfully, a project aimed at improving safety for local pedestrians and cyclists was included in the
Draft Highway 9/San Lorenzo Valley Complete Streets Corridor
Plan recently put out for public comments. Many of us, including
Supervisor Bruce McPherson, identified the pedestrian/cyclist
safe route from the schools to downtown Felton as our top priority
among proposed projects.
On Thursday, February 21, less than a week after a Felton resident
vividly described to the RTC the dangers of a particular stretch
of Highway 9 near downtown Felton, Josh Howard, a beloved
22-year-old graduate of our local high school, died in a car vs. pedestrian accident along that very section of road as he was walking
home toward Henry Cowell Park after a day shift at a local business.
This is utterly heartbreaking, and we feel for everyone impacted by
this tragedy, especially Josh’s family. It is in the best interests of our
community, our environment, and in some cases economic opportunity (for those without cars) for people to walk and bike more,
but those people need to feel and be safe. For that reason, with the
blessing of Josh’s family, I have created an online petition urging the
Regional Transportation Commission to respond with a statement
identifying the “safe route” project as their top priority for SLV and
letting the community know when work will start on the solution.
We hope they will dedicate the official safe route in Josh’s memory. We will keep the petition open for a couple of weeks and then
present it to the RTC. Anyone who would like to sign the petition
can do so here:
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/safe-pedestriancyclist-route-for-highway-9