------------------------------- requested motion --------------------------------
The BAC requests the Council to support a pedestrian, mostly-parallel, route along San Tomas, between Monroe ("Creek Trail") and Benton, by supporting opening five fences and using paths, initially dirt but eventually paved, in addition to existing nearby sidewalks. Bicycling should also be allowed on portions of this route where:
a) it goes through fences.
b) the path or sidewalk is along San Tomas, to prevent needless crossings of San Tomas (while avoiding "wrong way" bicycling).

One of these fence openings, 
that is separating the sidewalks of the El Camino bus stop and of Madera Drive,
is explicitly shown by the County Expressway Master Plan, 
which is formally titled "Comprehensive County Expressway Planning Study Implementation Plan", 
which was approved by the County Board of Supervisors on August 19, 2003,
in the section titled "San Tomas Expressway" of the same date, 
which is a separate document attachment or pdf file,
on the map shown on page 9,
is depicted by color blue (meaning "parallel street/path") 
connecting to color green (meaning "existing sidewalk"), 
as stated on the legend of the map.

This map also shows paths and wide shoulders for pedestrian use in color gray, including the paths that are part of the direct route.

Even without opening the other fences, the direct route reduces accident risk by eliminating 10 street crossings and 13 commercial driveway crossings. But with all 5 fences open, safety is greatly increased by completely eliminating two expressway crossings, which are, by far, the greatest source of pedestrian fatalities on expressways. This also results in a pleasant walk, being mostly on residential streets. If the choice is crossing the expressway versus going along the expressway on a path, sidewalk or wide shoulder, the safer choice is going along the expressway. 
---------------------------- end requested motion -----------------------------------

-------------  motion passed with this appended: --------------------------------
Recommend that staff investigate each of the five fence openings separately, so that if one opening is not viable, the others will still receive individual consideration.