Certino council leans toward prioritizing high-injury routes in Active Transportation Plan

The Certino City Council on April 7 received a staff update on the city’s Active Transportation Plan that would shift project prioritization toward the city’s high-injury network and away from a heavier school-proximity emphasis.

Senior transportation planner Matt Shrader outlined specific scoring changes presented to the council, saying the revised approach uses only objective metrics, increases the weight for high-injury corridors and for some school-related measures, removes an outreach-based “fairness” (likes) metric, and adds cost and arterial-traffic impact as formal criteria. “We then went to council and received direction to only use objective metrics, add cost as a scoring criterion, and add impacts to vehicular traffic on the city's arterials,” Shrader said during the presentation.

Shrader said the adjusted system awards 20 points for projects located on the high-injury network and 10 points for projects within 1,000 feet; school-related scoring was raised to a 20-point maximum if a project is on a suggested route to school. He also described a new project category—“transportation technology corridors”—and said five corridors were identified and ranked alongside bike and pedestrian projects.

The staff analysis produced a top-20 project list in which many of the highest-ranked items were relatively low-cost pedestrian intersection improvements on the high-injury network or neighborhood bike routes that avoid parking removal or road diets. Shrader explained project rules that would require a 30% design and, if impacts are shown then, a formal council review before projects proceed: “We would perform that analysis, bring back the findings and then council can make a judgment on whether or not those impacts are acceptable,” he said.

Council members pressed staff on trade-offs. Several members said they were inclined to prioritize safety on the high-injury network, while others worried projects that serve school routes could fall lower in the priority list. Council member Fuin said she favored focusing on high-injury areas: “I’d really like to focus our efforts on the high-injury network,” she said. Staff responded that the ATP list is a prioritization tool and that council may elevate individual projects through the CIP process if desired.

Public commenters raised concerns about parking loss, costs and street safety. Jennifer Griffin, speaking in person, praised the staff work but urged continued public discussion and stronger education on e-bikes: “It was a very very good report,” she said, then described seeing e-bikes with multiple young riders and urged clearer local rules and education. A virtual commenter identified as Sanra (speaking as a resident and noting she serves on the planning commission) urged the council to continue the item or defund it, arguing staff had underestimated parking and traffic impacts and that the city cannot afford the program in a structural deficit.

City staff responded that the ATP is primarily the city’s mechanism to secure grant funding for pedestrian and bicycle projects and that individual parking or traffic impacts would be reviewed at the design (30%) stage. The city manager said staff would investigate school drop-off congestion concerns and announced a May community meeting on e-bikes and e-scooters with outside experts and hoped-for sheriff’s office participation to discuss enforcement and education.

After extended discussion and a straw poll, a majority of council members signaled support for the revised scoring that places greater emphasis on the high-injury network; staff said they had sufficient direction to incorporate the revised criteria into the draft ATP and proceed with the public-review document and one-month comment period before returning in summer for potential adoption. Staff also said targeted safety improvements at the Tory and Pacifica intersection will move forward regardless of scoring outcomes.

The council adjourned and said it would reconvene at 6:45 p.m.