With CV Link now open, residents push for better infrastructure for cyclists, pedestrians city-wide

The Palm Springs Sustainability Commission heard a presentation from members of an informal Active Transportation Committee recently who want more of a say as they work to address gaps in the city’s bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure that have come into sharper focus with the official opening of CV Link.

Fred Ross and John Siegel, members of the committee that has been meeting for over a year, presented their mission to enhance livability and sustainability through a connected network of safe walking and biking routes.

“Palm Springs was kind of doing really well with active transportation bike lanes” about a decade ago, Ross said. “We’ve got a fair number… everything was moving along well, but it kind of died off.”

Ross noted that surrounding cities including Coachella and Cathedral City now have active transportation plans, while Palm Springs has fallen behind.

The committee has identified several specific projects, including ensuring a connector between Desert Highlands and the 40-mile CV Link. Siegel said there had been an informal understanding that a connector would be built between James O Jesse and CV Link, but “it sort of fell through the cracks, and we want to make sure that it happens.”

The group is also working on coordinating improvements along North Riverside where CV Link now runs, to make the area safer and more accessible for pedestrians and the surrounding neighborhood.

Their priorities go beyond the CV Link – Ross also discussed better wayfinding, especially for tourists as well as plans for a road diet, or a reduction of vehicle lanes, along South Palm Canyon.

He said the city is getting ready to finalize engineering plans for the project before going to bid, but Ross wants to be sure there are bicycle lanes on either side of South Palm Canyon Drive, and that it lines up with Belardo Road.

“We got a copy of the city engineering plans and it has no plan for connecting those two and they’re literally – there’s just feet between them,” Ross said.

Ross said it’s not the first time cyclists have been forgotten, in the past the city has had to repave roads to add bike lanes. Ross and Siegel said that one of the goals of their committee is to improve communication between city departments, commissions, and residents.

The group is looking ahead to other projects that will include active transportation, including a future redesign of the Palm Springs Convention Center.

Chair Bernard Rottner was supportive of the committee, and said the conversation goes beyond street-level concerns, “It’s not only greenhouse gas emissions, it’s how we’re treating our lower income communities…because they have bigger impacts,” Rottner said. 

Simple things like a safe bike path could have a disproportionately large effect in low-income areas by ensuring access to jobs and grocery stores.

Sustainability Director LP McCloy, who has since moved on to a similar position in Pasadena, pointed out that the city doesn’t have a transportation department, it only has an engineering department that works closely with the sustainability department.

She said avenues for more systemic change could come from updating the city’s zoning code and street manuals –including non-motorized transportation and traffic calming manuals that dictate the size and shape of roads.

Commissioners were receptive to the idea of forming an ad hoc subcommittee with sustainability ommissioners, members of the public, and city staff from the engineering department, but stopped short of voting to form the subcommittee due to staffing turnover.

Commissioner Michael Frick said he would attend upcoming meetings of the committee headed by Ross and Siegel, with the intention of reporting back to the commission sometime in January on next steps.

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