I came across this article in The Press Enterprise by Suzanne Hurt. I think that this is very important for the City of Moreno Valley to take an avid approach to getting residents outside and riding bicycles. As an bicyclist myself, some of the major street including Alessandro and Sunnymead Boulevards are very dangerous to ride on. Luckily, with this master plan those streets will be getting updated along with numerous other streets throughout the entire city. So, get out and get on your bike. I will see you out on the road.

MORENO VALLEY: Bike plan shifts into higher gear

By Suzanne Hurt, Staff Writer, August 2, 2013 7:07 PM

Work will begin this month to update Moreno Valley’s bicycle master plan to make city streets more cyclist friendly and encourage people to get on their bikes.

The city has hired San Diego consultant, KTU+A, to upgrade a master plan completed seven years ago. The city council agreed in June to pay more than $134,000 to the planning and landscape architecture firm.

The primary goals for updating the plan are to get more people to use their bikes for transportation and to increase the number of people riding bikes to work, make personal trips or exercise, Traffic Engineer Eric Lewis said.

“The single-occupant vehicle driver – if they can make a short trip by bike, that improves air quality, that improves their health and it improves traffic congestion,” he said.

City officials also want to make the plan conform with regional plans such as the Western Riverside Council of Governments’ Non-Motorized Transportation Plan. The update is being funded with a $136,250 Community-Based Transportation Planning grant the California Department of Transportation gave the city in October 2012.

The project gets underway with a meeting in mid-August. Consultants and city officials will outline a project schedule and identify stakeholders, said Lewis, who bikes to work from Riverside and heads the transportation division overseeing the update.

KTU+A has experience working on bike plans for cities such as Temecula. Its staff will gather data on Moreno Valley’s current bicycling infrastructure and identify possible improvements by riding bicycles throughout the city and assessing the existing network.

Improvements could include bicycle boulevards, slower car speeds, better traffic signal detection, bike racks and adding bike lanes and buffered bike lanes, which use striping to add extra distance from car lanes. The consultants also will look for safety issues and missing links, where a lack of bike lanes reduce connectivity between major destinations and discourage people from cycling more.

Riverside Bicycle Club’s newsletter editor, Vicki Yearian, applauded the update. The legally blind Perris resident often rides her bike 20 miles into Moreno Valley and wants to take direct routes using bike lanes for safety.

“My bike’s my car,” she said. “To go five miles extra is a real pain. You won’t even do that in your car if you don’t have to.”

Moreno Valley is one of the few Inland cities with a bicycle master plan. Its existing bike lanes include what appear to be the first buffered bike lanes in Riverside County. That and the city’s desire to keep making progress unofficially rank Moreno Valley fourth or fifth in terms of bike-friendliness in western Riverside County and southern San Bernardino County, said Mark Friis, executive director of the Inland Empire Biking Alliance.

“There are a lot of cities that aren’t doing anything,” he said.

The city has a small bike lane project underway that recently added buffered bike lanes on Nason Street and Via Del Lago. Bike lanes will be added on Alessandro and Sunnymead boulevards, and Heacock and Frederick streets.

The plan update will be designed to entice less-experienced cyclists onto bikes more. City transportation officials like Lewis divide bicyclists into four groups identified by bike-friendly Portland.

Less than 1 percent of its residents are considered “strong and fearless” riders cycling anywhere under any road conditions. About 7 percent are “enthused and confident,” or comfortable on bike-friendly streets. About 33 percent fall in the “no way, no how” group, who won’t ride for any reason.

Officials hope the update will encourage more riding from the biggest group, “interested and concerned” riders who are afraid to ride major streets to work or commercial areas because of potential danger from cars and who make up 60 percent of the population, Lewis said.

The consultants will hold public workshops and seek input from bicycling clubs, bike commuters, college students, the Riverside Transit Agency and officials from major bike destinations such as Moreno Valley College.

Riverside Bicycle Club members will give feedback. But everyone who rides in Moreno Valley should, too, because rider input is crucial to such plans, club spokesman Cliff Luchsinger said.

The update should be completed in summer 2014. Once approved, the city could make improvements as money becomes available, Lewis said.

The city wants the maximum amount of feedback from cyclists, but getting people to turn out is the biggest challenge with community meetings. It’s hard to make informed decisions that way, he added.

“If you want to make a difference in Moreno Valley, show up at the meeting and give input,” Lewis said. “We want this plan to be for cyclists by cyclists.”