Bakersfield updates multimodal and street‑safety work; Public Works lists completed striping, radar signs, beacons and school improvements

Bakersfield city staff and the Blue Zones Project on Oct. 8 presented a multimodal transportation and safety progress report that summarized completed striping and bike-lane work, installation of radar feedback signs, rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFBs), speed humps and demonstration projects, and listed planned corridor and school-focused improvements.

Karina Funes, public policy manager for Blue Zones Project Bakersfield, said Blue Zones is in year three of a five‑year partnership sponsored locally by Adventist Health and California Resources Corporation. She listed outreach efforts that included an active transportation summit, multilingual education videos (English, Spanish and Punjabi), walking audits, a complete‑streets workshop and work toward a Safe Routes to School pilot and toolkit.

Public Works Director Zachary Meyer described planning documents and recent or ongoing projects: a local roads safety plan, an updated complete streets ordinance, a neighborhood traffic calming toolkit, an active transportation plan and demonstration projects such as Niles and Monterey. Meyer documented specific treatments already installed across the city: restriping to narrow travel lanes and create bike buffers, green painted conflict zones and bike lanes, continental/yellow school crosswalks, radar feedback speed signs (solar powered), RRFB push-button beacons at school crossings, speed humps and asphalt interim walkways where sidewalks were missing. He said the city is procuring a Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) safety plan, estimating $350,000–$400,000 and that some funding was carried from prior capital budgets and ARPA to support Safe Routes work.

Councilmembers asked staff to clarify request‑tracking and outreach processes, the ability to scale sidewalk infill and whether the city could test or rent specialized equipment for curb and barrier installation. Staff said many requests are received through the city app, by direct contact to Public Works, or via council offices, and acknowledged the need for clearer tracking metrics. Members discussed that larger corridor projects are often grant‑dependent, that ARPA provided about $5 million targeted to safe routes in qualified census tracts, and that available federal/state funding may be variable in coming years.

Councilmember Gonzales urged focus on outcome measures — for example, crash and pedestrian‑fatality trends — to help the public understand results from investments. Councilmembers noted that lane narrowing and buffers can reduce driving speeds and improve safety for all road users.

A motion to receive and file the multimodal transportation safety progress report and its presentations passed; the clerk recorded the motion as approved with Councilmember Weir absent.

The report contains planned follow‑ups and demonstration projects; staff said several projects are designed and some are fully funded, while others remain contingent on grant awards.