Dustin Graber

Paper 5

June 11, 2009

                                                Happy Trails           

            4 p.m. I was finally done with class for the day. I decided to take a different route home from school. I normally ride my bike along the streets to my house, but on this particular day I decided to take the Railroad Bike Trail. I started at Cal Poly and rode my bike down the wide two-lane bike trail. I felt an unusual sense of safety because I didn’t have to worry about the traffic that I was accustomed to dealing with. Unfortunately that sensation didn’t last long. The trail ended as soon as I left Cal Poly property and I was right back on the busy street. The trail started up again once I reached foothill and ran all the way to the 101. At that point I had to take the main roads because the Railroad Bike Trail is incomplete and didn’t take me all the way home. I always get nervous when cars and trucks are zooming right past me as I’m biking. I’m afraid that a distracted driver will veer off course and hit me. I know that it is unlikely, but it only takes one time to kill someone.

            This fear is something I have to deal with everyday when I ride my bicycle to school. There are multiple reasons I don’t drive. First, by the time I drive to school, find a parking space (off campus because the parking pass is too expensive) and walk to class, I might as well ride my bike. Second, with my busy schedule it is difficult to find time to stay in shape. By riding my bike to school I’m killing two birds with one stone, getting a workout and providing transportation. Finally, riding my bicycle to school provides alternative sustainable transportation and takes my car off the road. In doing so, I reduce my carbon footprint and help keep our air clean.

Protecting our environment is something more and more people are starting to care about. Developers consider sustainability when working on a new project. Will the Railroad Bicycle Trail be a sustainable development? According to Our Common Future, a sustainable development “Meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The Railroad Bicycle Trail is a sustainable development because it “gets cars off the road and helps reduce pollution” (Lets Make It Happen!). It meets the needs of the present by providing citizens with a safe way to ride their bikes around town. It allows future generations to meet their own needs because it encourages the use of bicycles instead of cars thus reducing pollution (Worth).

The Railroad Safety Trail is considered a class 1 bike path because it only is used by bicyclists and pedestrians and it is paved. These bike paths run all over California including several in the San Francisco area as well as one in Orange County. The Railroad Safety Trail will be comparable to other class 1 bike trails in California when it is finished (Lets Make It Happen!).

When it is finished, the Railroad Safety Trail will run from Cal Poly to Downtown and all the way to the southern city limits of San Luis Obispo. It is currently a work in progress but many of the pieces are now in place. The Cal Poly portion of the trail is on campus and was funded by Cal Poly. Another section of the trail stretches from Foothill all the way over the 101. This portion was funded mostly by the city and includes a bridge over 101 (All Aboard). The Rotary Club of San Luis Obispo is sponsoring the area between these two sections. This patch of road is the same that I came across the other day when I rode my bike along the trail. The completion of the “Missing Link” as it has come to be known, will cost $307,000 (Bike Trail). A third section, which is not completed, will run from Amtrak train station to Marsh St. This section will be funded by the state that just awarded $890,000 in contribution to the Railroad Safety Trail (Bicycle Coalition). The SLO County Bicycle Coalition has played a big role in bargaining for state and federal grants for this project. It is estimated that the cost of the trail will total in the millions.

Is taxpayer money best used on a class 1 bike trail in a time of economic crisis? Some say that the Railroad Safety Trail is currently in pieces and it would be a waste of all the money sunk into the project not to complete it. Other taxpayers say that is ridiculous how the state writes IOU’s for tax refunds but spends millions of dollars on a bicycle trail (Luhby). But, in this time of economic crisis, what we really need is jobs. The jobs created for the construction of the Railroad Safety Trail will help boost our economy.

Should the Southern Pacific Railroad also have to contribute financially since they are responsible for the safety of their own train tracks? According to the Southern Pacific Railroad they should not. The land that the railroad is on is private property so anyone on the tracks is trespassing. For this reason, Southern Pacific Railroad believes that its current safety precautions are sufficient. But, they are neglecting to acknowledge the safety problems they have had in the past. On November 11, 2006, a train hit Ryan West and he lost his leg. He said that the presence of a fence would have prevented him from losing his leg. Regardless of the dangers, Southern Pacific Railroad has denied claims that it should help improve safety along its tracks (Wise), even though a long history of incidents would say otherwise. The tracks can be dangerous especially in places where they meet the road. In 2001, Jason Cy tried to cross the train tracks on his bike. He was hit by a train and killed. Part of the reason the trail was made was to prevent tragedies like this from happening.

So is the Railroad Safety Trail worth the money? Yes. The project is a good investment not only in our town but also in our future. San Luis Obispo is such a bicycle town that having a class 1 bike path will add value to the city as a whole. The increased number of bicycle riders that will free up the roads and the car-free trail will help current traffic conditions especially around the Cal Poly campus. With more people on bikes and less people in carbon emitting vehicles, the San Luis Obispo carbon footprint will decrease dramatically. The Railroad Safety Trail will improve safety by keeping bicyclist off the road and also by keeping them off the railroad. This will prevent future tragedies like that of Jason Cy. Spending money on the trail is a good idea because the trail serves so many purposes and is so useful that the benefits of the trail will ultimately outweigh the cost.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

"All Aboard The Railroad Safety Trail." Slobikelane.org. <http://slobikelane.org/cm/news/Archives.html>.

"Bicycle Coalition Helps Win $890,000 for Railroad Bicycle Trail." Slobikelane.org. <http://slobikelane.org/cm/news/news.html#momentum>.

"Bike Trail." Slorotary.org. <http://www.slorotary.org/Service/BikeTrail/tabid/81/Default.aspx>.

"Lets Make It Happen!" Rrtrailfund.org.

Our common future. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987 p. 43.

Luhby, Tami. "California's cash crunch: IOUs coming." CNNMoney. <http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/30/news/economy/california_budget_crisis/  index.htm>.

Wise, Tyler. "How Safe Are the Tracks You Walk On?" The Mustang Daily [San Luis Obispo]

Worth, Chad. "Local Candidates Matter." The Mustang Daily [San Luis Obispo].