Neighbor News
County, City conspire to divert highway funds to construct bike paths
Walnut Creek and Contra Costa County are planning to use Highway Safety funds to construct bike paths along a highly congested road
In a recent meeting held behind closed doors, Contra Costa County and the City of Walnut Creek agreed to use over $6 million in funds from programs designed to promote highway safety and improvements to carve out a three-block-long bicycle path on Treat Boulevard. The affected area runs from North Main Street to Jones Road, a stretch of Treat Boulevard that currently handles over 40 thousand vehicles a day. The planned bike path duplicates the existing Canal Trail, which is dedicated to bikers and pedestrians and is located two blocks South of Treat Boulevard and connects directly to the Iron Horse Trail for access to the Pleasant Hill BART station. It is not clear why any bikers ould use the congested proposed paths or where they would exit at tither end rather than the existing Canal Trail. The City acknowledged both the high risk to bikers using the proposed paths and the negative impacts on traffic in this highly congested area. So, who is promoting this project and why?
Larry McEwen
