Street safety measures were proposed and updated at the Bakersfield City Council meeting on Oct. 8.
At the start of the meeting, Pastor Mike Sutherland of the Mill Creek Christian Church gave the invocation. Following the invocation, Patrick Jota led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Young students from Chipman Junior High School presented a project proposal on the street safety efforts that could be made around Chipman, as well as within the Bakersfield community.
Within the presentation, these students offered different statistics that they gathered from a survey about street safety concerns and traffic calming measures.
“Most parents cited safety concerns as the main reason they choose to drive their children rather than allowing them to walk or bike,” said Juan Moreno, a seventh grader at Chipman Junior High School.
Parents who answered the survey expressed support for traffic calming measures such as road diets and speed restrictions.
Moreno spoke on the idea of making lanes on University Drive smaller to allow a larger bike and multi-modal lane.
The student’s goal is to connect the community. Through creating a network of low-stress streets, they want to encourage safer travel, stronger neighborhood bonds, and a more vibrant, people-focused public space.
The measures that these students proposed are considered Tier 1 and qualify for state and federal funding requirements. Meaning, these ideas to help with street safety are low-cost and are “… easy to implement,” said Leighton Powell, another seventh-grade student from Chipman Junior High School.
The council members praised these young students for their efforts with this project that they have been working on for over a month.
Councilmember Andrae Gonzalez and the other council members took time to praise and ask questions to the students about the bandwidth of their proposals.
Continuing with the theme of street safety, Public Works Director Zach Meyer gave an update on the current street safety measures being implemented throughout the city.
Meyer highlighted that there have been striping improvements done to more than 30 streets in Bakersfield. The project is also adding different types of traffic calming measures to neighborhoods, especially around schools.
As the meeting concluded, the message was unanimous. Street safety is a high priority in the city of Bakersfield. With continued collaboration between residents, youth advocates, and city leaders, the push for safer, more inclusive roadways is well underway.