By Randy Johnson, Mayor, City of Scotts Valley
Ya Gotta Believe — Those words were brought to life by the New York Mets in 1973, when trailing badly in the baseball pennant race they passionately voiced that slogan. And it seemed to work, as they ultimately prevailed and won the National League pennant, only to lose the World Series to the Oakland Athletics.
Randy Johnson
An enduring remnant of that phase has come to derive that if you boldly hold and cherish a belief strong enough, that by the will of your determination, it will come to pass. It’s a noble, almost mystical position, but often an exception to the rule of logic and rationale.
At our last City Council meeting, we were tasked with evaluating several options on the future of Scotts Valley Drive and directing staff to further study those preferences and bring back data to the city council for a final vote.
The options were varied and compelling. They fell into a couple of camps: Status quo and keep Scotts Valley Drive’s configuration pretty much intact or “evolve” into a more enlightened, pedestrian and bicycle-friendly vision for the road.
It made for a very interesting meeting.
Prior to the meeting, the council was inundated with scores of emails, supporting the concept of putting the Drive on a lane diet and reduce the number of lanes from 4 to 2, while boldly enhancing the separation between cars and bicyclists with protected bike lanes.
The pleas were heartfelt, many revolving about the fact that Scotts Valley Drive is neither terribly inviting, nor beautiful, and most importantly, not safe for parents to let their kids walk or ride their bikes to school.
The safety argument is accurate, if not statistically, certainly from a bicyclist’s standpoint.
As a casual biker myself, I have felt unsafe within a 5-foot-wide bike lane that exposes you to cars, often traveling at 40 miles per hour, that come within a few feet of your person.
People spoke passionately in favor of this option.
There were, however, competing scenarios that advanced the proposition of both enhancing bicycle safety, but preserving the 4 lanes of the drive. And there was passion on that end as well.
One email succinctly stated the point, “Are you seriously thinking of removing a car lane to add bicycle lanes? What kind of traffic nightmare are you exactly trying to create?”
I would characterize the general theme of those opposing reducing the 4 lanes with a sense of incredulity, as if the reduction was a true regression for the city.
In the end, on a split vote, the council voted to recommend the 4-lane option for further study, with enhanced safety for bikes and pedestrians. These features included expanding the width of the bike lanes from 5 to 11 feet, by reducing the width of both the median and the car lanes by a foot.
My essential argument was that I felt the community would not support the 2-lane option and its price tag of $12 million for the alternate option was simply too expensive.
In addition, a similar experiment of reducing lanes on Portola Drive in Midcounty had failed badly.
Scotts Valley often has a way of compromise and meeting in the middle and I think this decision reflected that.
In a postscript, there were some who were angry that the council would even contemplate a “lane diet.”
I look at it differently.
Passionate advocates, who are aspirational, offer a portal for us to look through for ways to enhance our future. Without dreamers, we would still be using phonebooks, disposable cameras and pagers. So to them, there is always the next topic or proposition, while remembering, “Ya gotta believe.”
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Randy Johnson is mayor of Scotts Valley. Email him at rlj12@comcast.net.
