Temple City hosted two meetings over the past couple of months to gather community input for the Las Tunas Drive revitalization project. A third and final meeting was held on Thursday, December 27, 2012 with over four hours of presentations, public comment and discussion. Elected officials in Temple City underlined the need to reinvent the City's stagnant downtown by unanimously voting to select the most innovative design concept - "Alternative 3" - which proposes to dramatically transform the City's historic downtown into a more vibrant, people-friendly district.

Key Improvements for the new Las Tunas Drive:

• Class II Bike Lanes in each direction
• Back-in angle parking (video) to increase parking capacity and improve safety for all road users
• Road diet (5 to 3 travel lanes - one in each direction plus center turning lane)
• Narrower lane widths to calm traffic and provide space for cyclists
• Bulb-outs at intersections to shorten pedestrian crossing distances
• New pedestrian crossings on long blocks 
• 200+ canopy trees, public art, and more (visit project website for details)

Several dozen members of the public weighed in on the project during the public comment session of Thursday's meeting, including almost a dozen BikeSGV organizers, supporters, and health advocates. The addendum to the Council agenda also revealed that there was an outpouring of email communication submitted in favor of Alternative 3 prior to the meeting. Our sincerest thanks to those who made the time over the busy holidays to attend and speak at the meeting - Jenny Wu, Vu Le, Jonathan Edwards, Efren Moreno, Vincent Chang, Melissa-Preciado Hernandez, Andrew Yip, Javier Hernandez, and more. Collectively your voices had a major impact! Indeed, the Council appeared to give serious consideration to watering down the project until they heard your feedback and personal stories.

In conjunction with the Rosemead Blvd. Project, which includes Class I Protected Bike Paths or "cycle tracks" in both directions, the Las Tunas Drive Project will create an axis of bike-friendly business districts in Temple City, with both major commercial corridors in town incorporating designated road space for cyclists. When completed, the projects will set a number of firsts in the San Gabriel Valley, including first Class I on-street "cycle track" and first Class II bicycle lane through a community's central business district (to date the few bicycle lanes in the SGV have avoided downtowns).

BikeSGV would like to congratulate all the City staff, residents, public health advocates, consultants, elected leaders and other stakeholders whose hard work, feedback, and time made this decision a reality. Your commitment to a more bicycle-friendly Temple City has placed the City on the cusp of becoming the leader in bike planning and infrastructure in the San Gabriel Valley, a truly remarkable development when considering that the City's first bicycle master plan was only adopted in March 2010!

We encourage members of the public to thank staff and the City Council for their leadership by sending them a quick email.