The equivalent of 1 lane of the entire length of Dwight Way, Cedar Street, MLK Way, and Claremont should be devoted to bike traffic in 2 directions. Parking on one side of these streets should be eliminated to achieve this. This will require more parking stickers for residents as "their" parking spots in front of their homes are eliminated, and I suggest each such homeowner be given a free AC transit pass good for 2 years. Efforts to promote bike use for transit and not merely for recreation are very important.

As a mother of an elementary school age child, I would like to encourage the city's transportation planners and global warming strategists to view mobility issues from a family's perspective. It seems that for us and many of our peers, much of our transport time is spent shuttling children around: to school, soccer, the library, swimming, playdates...even errands, when they include children, are in the car.

The Climate Action Plan as it stands now, does not specifically consider this group of people and how to reduce their reliance on the car for these many short, around-town trips. For our family, a few changes to the bicycle boulevards would help enormously to get us out of our car.

1) Reduce the number of stop signs on the boulevards. Constantly stopping and starting is logistically difficult for a child and slows down a trip to the point where it becomes impractically slow.

2) Reduce the number of cars on the main routes, particularly Milvia and Channing, through the addition of one or two well placed traffic diverters. The cars and trucks are a hazard to cyclists and especially children because of the pollution they generate and the potential they have to cause accidents. Some of the bicycle routes, particularly at rush hour, act as secondary corridors for cars. It seems appropriate if we want to support bicycling to really give cyclists priority on the Bicycle Boulevards.

By instituting these changes, we provide families with more options for moving around town without cars. By spending more time on bicycles children get exercise and they learn that bicycling is a valid, practical and respected mode of transport to be used all of their lives.

Please add something similar to the following: “Where possible and appropriate, add and improve opportunities for outdoor recreation and enjoyment of nature that are local and accessible by transit, foot, and bicycle.” A separate bullet item advocates increased opportunities for shopping. But we do not live by just buying stuff. People should have access to nature without an internal-combustion engine propelling two tons of steel along miles of concrete freeway – or an airplane spewing greenhouse gasses into the upper atmosphere. We should thoughtfully integrate into this plan everything from neighborhood tot lots to large greenbelts – the Eastshore State Park and the Wildcat/Tilden/Redwood etc. chain of East Bay Regional Park District hill parks. Thanks! Friends of Five Creeks

I would like to suggest that Berkeley encourage all restaurants to provide their waste vegetable oil (WVO) to a large Berkeley biodiesel coop (or group of smaller ones) to be converted to Biodiesel. Biodiesel can be provided free to those who invest time in assisting with the coop (like all coops).

Currently much of this WVO is picked up by renders who charge the restaurants to pick it up. Then, the oil is resold by the render to plastics companies and other uses. This means a resource that could go to powering low-emission vehicles (a ford F250 running on biodiesel is almost twice as clean as a Prius) ends up making more waste plastic that ends up in the oceans and bay itself.

By simply encouraging the restaurants to provide this oil to those who would use it to power vehicles who are more than willing to pick it up and convert it to biodiesel (or coops can be formed, etc.), Berkeley can limit greenhouse gases from vehicles, not use any "first-use" crops to create fuel (the oil has already served it's primary service) and prevent more plastic creation (like plastic bags).