Safe Routes to School mobility project starts on Al Tahoe Blvd

The Al Tahoe Safety and Mobility Enhancement Project, also known as the “Safe Routes to School” project will begin with striping bike lanes on Al Tahoe Blvd. beginning the week of July 17th. The pilot project will be the first step towards the full project planned for 2019. As part of the project Class 2 on street bike lanes and a Class 1 off street multi-use path will be added in conjunction with vehicle lane restriping. To test of the concept plan, the pilot project introduces the bike lanes now by reconfiguring two of the four vehicle travel lanes and keeping the 2 way center turn lane. . In the interim, the extra width will be striped as a “buffered bike lane” which is roughly 6’ of bike lane and a 5’ wide striped buffer between the traffic.

This project has had a tremendous amount of community input from residents, advocacy groups, the school district, and teachers and students. Traffic Engineers have shown through computer models that 2 lanes are adequate to serve the motorists now and in the future. The reconfigured roadway will slow down and calm traffic to 25 mph in the school zone and provide a safe biking route for students and the community.

While the City of South Lake Tahoe is the lead on the project and is contributing roughly 13 percent in funding for the project, this project would not have come to fruition without the “On Your Way” grant funding from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. The majority of the planning, permitting, design and construction costs are covered by grant funding from the state of California through the Active Transportation Program.

Project partners are: Caltrans, City of South Lake Tahoe, Lake Tahoe Unified School District, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and Tahoe Sustainability Collaborative. The project accomplishes; safety enhancements, mobility enhancements and beautification of streetscapes in accordance with the City’s Complete Streets policy.