By Andrea Lopez-Villafana / San Diego Union-Tribune / July 6, 2021
Next week, construction crews will begin striping the road along 30th Street in North Park for the city’s newest protected bikeway project.
Known as the 30th Street Protected Bikeways Mobility Project, it calls for protected bike lanes from Juniper Street to Adams Avenue. It does away with some 450 curb parking spots along the corridor, but it incorporates “floating” parking, commercial loading zones, timed parking and accessible spots from Upas Street to Adams Avenue. Floating parking are spots that are not next to a curb but are a few feet away and are marked with striping on the road.
Transportation, cycling and environmental advocates have expressed support for the project in hopes that it will create a safer environment for people who bike along the popular corridor.
But some residents and businesses owners have repeatedly spoken against the project because of the reduced number of parking spaces in the area. Disability advocates have also shared concerns about fewer accessible parking spots.
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The curb along the whole area (both sides) is already painted red.
This feels like an “…if you build it, they will come” idea. I have serious doubts many bicyclists will use it. Just look at what happened between Nimitz and Sports Arena along W. Point Loma. I drive that stretch of road nearly every day and, anecdotally anyway, I’ve maybe seen 20 cyclists on that route since the lane was installed. Everybody is tripping over themselves to be the first to go green without fully considering all of the consequences.
This type of off the cuff decision making is exactly why a super majority should not exist. We need to have a balanced legislature and city council to represent all people, not just the progressive activists.
The thing that gets to me is that the city is forging ahead with this and other projects when many of the bicyclists I know think that the design is unsafe and will not use them. Cyclists cannot see cars at intersections and cars cannot see cyclists.
They point to the cyclist killed in the new bike lanes on old Hwy 101 using the lanes. This needs more study and more community involvement in the decision making process, and not the ramming through of a project during the time of a pandemic lock-down!
I think they need to seriously consider what roads they are doing this to. I just drove along Mission Bay, on the east side, and saw that they now have these sharrows painted the whole way. This when there is a great bicycle path 100 yards away on the water!. Why are there sharrows on Voltaire wit hall the diagonal parking when there are better choices such as Muir and Long Branch just a one or two blocks away. Why are these also on Catalina Blvd. when ther are alternate routes? 30th is part of a street system with all roads laid out in parallel lines, why not do this a block over? The poor guy that died on Highway 101 was riding on a road with a speed limit of 45 miles per hour and if you look at Google maps, you see good parallel routes on roads with lower speed limits. This decision on 30th street is idiotic. This once somewhat tawdry street has been transformed by local businesses in recent years. Small businesses at that. Now, we are handing them this additional problem just so cyclists can have the road? Really stupid.
I have to agree. This is a community that I never thought would be re-vitalized that has become a vibrant commercial destination neighborhood that attracts locals and people from other communities. The answer to this? Let’s kill the businesses! Starve them of customers who can’t/won’t use transit or bikes, or walk the unknown number of blocks from the nearest parking space.