The Concord City Council could decide tonight to endorse the concept of a bicycle playground — a network of small-scale bicycle-sized “roads” within Concord Community Park — where children and adults riding bikes would be able to learn the rules of the road.
The park would be built and paid for by the Contra Costa Transportation Authority through its Street Smarts Diablo program. The city of Concord would be responsible for programming, operations, controlling reserved use and ongoing maintenance.
CCTA proposes building what is described as a “miniature street-scape” with the roads and their scaled-down signals, traffic signs, road markings, bus stops, bike lanes, railroad crossings and other real-life traffic markers and obstacles.
“Learning to bicycle by navigating busy roadways, amidst real-life traffic, may discourage would be riders and has the potential for grave consequences for those willing to try,” according to a Street Smarts Diablo news release. “Additionally, inexperienced riders may be less likely to feel comfortable taking advantage of new environmentally beneficial cycling infrastructure.”
That would fit in with the city of Concord’s stated goals of maintaining “an environment that supports walking, bicycling and active living,” and increasing awareness and support of walking and bicycling through education, encouragement and evaluation programs.
The idea for this park has been kicking around since 2018. The city’s Transportation Division support it, saying it would complement the city’s Bike and Pedestrian Plan, and help the city transition over the long haul from an “auto-centric culture” to more sustainable transportation methods.
Tonight’s Concord City Council meeting starts at 6:30 p.m., and is being broadcast over Zoom and via the city’s website.
Oh cool more Agenda 2030. A training course for the car less future.
Cool, will it have a police officer and raging masked Karen to complete the simulation?
Sounds lame.
I’m sorry but what happened and when that Concord became this bastion of reason and effective planning. They are making Walnut Creek look like a colonial re-enactment living museum.
Which days are for black bikes, and which are for other than black?
They say rhey want to move away from a “auro-centric culture.” Social engineers always prefer an autocratic culture
I love riding bikes and this sounds like a huge waste of money and time. Also I live near Cowell park and this design just sounds hideous.
Instead of ruining a park, do this in the open land between the police station and Bart.
As a avid bike enthusiast I agree this sounds lame. Maybe a pump track or an actual off road course.
Baldwin Park used to have a dirt BMX track.
And speaking of bikes, an article was posted here about Rivendell Bicycle Works. Numerous negative reviews were posted on Yelp. All the negative reviews have been removed and the following message was posted on Yelp:
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wow so one big rossmoore city
and this is going to cost how much
the city sure does find a way to spend money when they say they have none
What a waste of money, fix our roads !
This is a great idea. I remember a park just like this back in Christchurch, New Zealand. I went there when I was learning to ride my bike back in the 70’s. This park and mini road system is still there today along with swings and slides. Accommodated kids on bikes and trikes. I think there were even some pedal cars.
Not. How did turning in your firearms work out for your countrymen? I think we will make decisions without input on mindless globalist examples. Thanks
So you have a arguably useful park and no way to protect yourself from your own government. Cool
This is corruption and cronyism. A miniature city to teach biking? How much, and how well, is the contractor both getting and connected to the Council?
Kind of a neat idea for the youth
Complete waste of TAXPAYER money.
As long as everybody wears fat suits while riding for the inevitable collisions, it will be OK. And the videos will be Tik Tok worthy!
And don’t forget giant cardboard head cutouts of our local politicians.
A neighborhood park should be a place for families, large shade trees, picnic tables, nearby areas for family sports, and play structures. Cowell Park is too small to have the equivalent of an asphalt playground that kids will use once and thereafter find too boring.
I too must be missing something.
Don’t we have a crisis with money? The City is begging to have measure V passed but they plan to have money for continuous maintenance for this program. Time to get back to basics people.
Seems to me like this is discussing what color to paint the room when the foundation is crumbling.
Who’s minding the store?
Why don’t they spend that money on safe bike routes instead? This sounds stupid. The library is/was already a day care center with few shelves of books for adults. Now instead of infrastructure for safe cycling they talk about a bike tot lot.
Oh good lord, people -this is no radical agenda item. Decades ago my hometown police department had a “Bicycle Club” with regular Saturday afternoon rides and events to teach children the rules of the road, develop positive relationships between youth and police, and have fun doing it. Giving kids a place to ride and learn safely should be s no-brainer.
Agenda 21/2030….
.
Will there be adults using their cell phone while on a bike or driving a car?
.
Some bicycle training would be a good thing for kids. And adults too. BITD we used to do it at school or in the neighborhood. We should equip kids to ride safely.
Yes because people follow rules 😩
Phew. What would we ever be able to do without the nanny government teaching us super basic ideas. What a waste of money. Fix the effing roads and pick up all the trash left by the exploding homeless problem.
Sounds really dumb, honestly. I don’t see it being much of an educational aide, no more than sitting your kid down in front of a youtube video and then just going out for a ride with them on a quiet morning.
And while you are our for a ride, what are your kids doing? Nothing. I guess that’s modern parenting. LOL
Jojo, maybe you ought to read that again so you’ll catch the “going out for a ride with them” part.
Why is this hare brained scheme giving me deja vu about the soccer stadium? The good citizens of Concord are not asking for this. The only one asking for this is The Music Man that has sold this pet project to our idiotic council.
I am a lifelong cyclist and used to be the cycling leader for our Cub Scout pack. I am very pro-cycling and pro bicycle coaching, education, mentoring, etc. I dislike putting bikes on cars and DRIVING them to some special place just so you can ride them. The city should have long term policy goals of making the city more bicycle friendly, not sacrificing valuable park land for somebody’s get rich quick scheme.
And when you DO find it necessary to drive the bikes somewhere for a beginner’s bike clinic, as I have done, we are actually blessed around here. We have regional trails, huge empty parking lots, and some sleepy neighborhoods that are perfect for that activity.
The “unused” portions of Cowell Park (yes that’s what it’s called) are the parts that actually make it a park. It does not surprise me that our city leaders are so out of touch with their constituency that they devalue a little green buffer space that hundreds of locals use daily to walk, jog, dog, or just mentally decompress.
If they even move forward with entertaining ideas like this, all in favor should be removed from office. This is our government, we should start maintaining it. Every single 🤡 on that council, and the actual administration (Valerie Barone) and Co. work for us. There are procedures to remove any or all of them. Half of them don’t even live in Concord.
Make sure it comes with inattentive drivers, drivers who run stop lights and stop signs as well as stoned and drunk drivers and loose dogs chasing bikes. This will really prepare them for the reality out there.
I would think that fixing the roads would be a priority over other new ideas. I don’t think anyone from the City has even seen how bad my court is.
Many people walk on the path at Cowell Park with their dogs. There will be more rude bikers on the foot path causing a dangerous situation.
Where?…would it take the place where concord kids play soccer? ⚽️
I was at the meeting a few years ago and except for some blind spots and a need for walking trail To walk with children learning to ride a bike it actually looked very beneficial. Children learning to ride a bike While learning about pedestrian/bicycle safety, within a mini city with Mini stop lights at multiple intersections,
At the time it was to be funded by a grant so interesting to find out if the city will have to pay for anything at all except for upkeep and donating a part of city park land.
Data is still being compiled from California Department of Transportation by Cal-Berkeley’s TIMS project and it is showing 77 children, ages 4-18 being struck by motorized vehicles in the City of Concord 60%+ of them driver fault while Children were in the crosswalk, from Jan 2015-Dec 2019. Anything that brings those stats down needs to be considered with an open mind.
NO, NO, NO!!! ABSOLUTE WASTE OF TIME AND TAX PAYER’S $$$!!!
Cool. Be sure to include junkies and bums in unsanitary clothing with aggravating skin conditions, to prep those sweet, sweet kiddos for their future life in the beautiful Bay Area. And once a month or so, outta nowhere, a loose Pit Bull chase for the Oakland young’ns. For some communities, drive-by shootings with live ammunition (gonna be reality for some kids, right??) – learn how to lay that bike down and army-crawl between used syringes and spent casings, to hide behind a rusting ’96 Mazda 626 with mismatched hubcaps. No?
You forgot to mention the Mazda has no muffler so it’s really loud and scary and the windows are tinted dark so you cant tell if the driver is pointing a gun at you or not.
Nice!
With all the things that Concord needs they want to do this… I think the better use of the money would be to build a gun range. At least people would use it and they could develop a skill that they might need in the future….
Cute idea. But how about instead we get serious about making our roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Clayton Road, anyone? You can be an expert in safe cycling all you want, but it won’t make you safe in a disaster zone like that.