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4 <br /> <br />Presently, the Draft General Plan Update Mobility Element is proposing updates to <br />the citywide Bikeway Master Plan to support additional on-road and off-road bike <br />facilities. The City also continuous to pursue grant funding and the implementation <br />of bikeways. Bikeways promote active, alternative modes of transportation for the <br />community while promoting affordable travel choices and healthy lifestyle for the <br />community. <br />• The City’s street median islands are an important traffic safety feature of the City’s <br />arterial transportation system and aesthetics of the travel corridors. The master <br />plan calls for closing median gaps which will be completed as part of the Bristol <br />Street Phase Three improvements which will soon begin construction. In addition, <br />new medians will be added to Warner Avenue from Main Street to Oak Street as <br />this street is developed to a fully functional arterial street in support of regional <br />mobility. Warner Avenue will be widened from two to three lanes in each direction, <br />and medians will improve Traffic Safety by prohibiting left turns in locations at <br />certain secondary locations. <br />• The City has programed over $1,000,000 annually in the preservation and <br />maintenance of the City’s Urban Forest. In particular, the urban forestry program <br />emphasizes trees in parkways and in medians also leading to the aesthetic appeal <br />of arterial corridors and residential zones. The City has successfully maintained <br />Tree City USA status for more than a decade. The City’s Strategic Plan includes <br />goals and objectives for the City’s Urban Forest and identifies Street Trees as <br />adding to the quality of life and advances the local and regional mobility <br />experience. <br />• In conjunction with other efforts by the City to improve its arterial corridors, which <br />play a significant role for regional mobility but also improve local resident quality of <br />life, undergrounding electrical and other overhead utilities continues to be an <br />important design enhancement that the City has consistently incorporated into <br />arterial improvements. Undergrounding utilities is currently interfacing with the <br />new medians being constructed on Bristol Street and on Warner Avenue. <br />Undergrounding utilities also improve safety by eliminating public exposure to <br />electrocution from downed electrical wires. The cost of undergrounding is primarily <br />implemented by the private utilities with some funding participation by the City. The <br />funding stream is not robust, which means the City has to carefully plan where <br />undergrounding efforts will occur next and carry funding over for several years to <br />financially support undergrounding of utilities. <br />• A Citywide Safe Routes to School Plan has been adopted that identifies traffic <br />safety improvements around all of the neighborhood schools within the City of <br />Santa Ana. The City is actively pursuing grant funding to implement the measures <br />identified in the Safe Routes to School Plan. The City has already received funding <br />for several of the projects and construction is ongoing. <br />• City staff has evaluated the highest street parking densities in the City to analyze <br />the ratio of the inventory of available parking spaces to number of registered <br />vehicles in an area. The City will follow up this analysis by partnering the Public <br />Works Agency with the Planning and Building Agency to conduct a citywide study