By Brian White / CBS8 / October 6, 2025
Big changes to a busy street in Clairemont are drawing strong opinions from both residents and cyclists. A new road striping configuration on Clairemont Drive has reduced the number of traffic lanes and added separated bike lanes.
What was once two lanes in each direction is now one lane each way. The re-striping also added bike lanes along the sidewalk and relocated street parking to the outside of the traffic lanes, creating a physical buffer between moving cars and cyclists.
“It’s confusing, it’s frustrating, and I feel like it’s causing a dangerous situation,” said Martina Malray, a homeowner who lives near the North Clairemont Library. “Somebody could get hurt.”
Malray says her biggest concern is safety when parking and exiting her vehicle, now that parked cars sit directly adjacent to moving traffic.
“This is very unsafe, trying to get in and out of my car,” she said.
She also believes the city didn’t provide enough advance notice or signage about the changes.
“There is not adequate signage explaining what’s happening here,” she said. “It doesn’t say, ‘One lane ahead.’ So yeah, it’s not clear.”
Beyond day-to-day confusion, she worries about what would happen in an emergency, such as a wildfire.
“If we have a wildfire, how are we going to get out of here?” Malray asked. “All these homes are on a canyon. We are at risk, and now we have one lane out? This is crazy.”
But others see the redesign as a long-overdue step toward safer, more bike-friendly streets.
Ian Grooms, with the community organization Vibrant Clairemont, supports the new configuration and says it makes biking and walking in the area significantly safer.
“Even though there are changes, the intent is to promote safety for all,” Grooms said. “The parked cars serve as an effective buffer for bicyclists, and that allows people like me to feel safer along the roadway.”
He used to avoid biking along Clairemont Drive entirely because of the fast-moving traffic.
“I rode on the sidewalk instead because the vehicles were whizzing by,” he said. “Now, I’m seeing that the vehicles are traveling at slower rates now that we have a one-lane roadway, so I believe this kind of configuration promotes safety.”
According to the City of San Diego’s Transportation Department, the repaving and re-striping happened after underground pipeline work for the Pure Water Project. The city says traffic studies were conducted prior to the lane reduction, and the new layout is part of a broader citywide approach to improve safety and accessibility.
“This kind of floating parking configuration has been in use in San Diego for quite some time now,” the department said in a statement, “including areas of Downtown, Point Loma, North Park, Jamacha, Mission Valley, and University City. The benefits of floating parking include maintaining on-street parking, separating people on bikes from high-speed vehicles, and providing additional accessible spaces.”
Cycling advocates with the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition are also voicing strong support for the redesign.
“We understand that the new roadway configuration may be confusing for some and will require a period of adjustment,” the Coalition said in a statement. “However, we are confident that the new configuration on Clairemont Drive will make the community safer, more livable, and is prudent infrastructure development.”
The group added that the redesign provides critical improvements in an important part of the neighborhood.
“It creates a much safer separated bikeway on a vital stretch of road adjacent to multiple schools, and makes walking safer and more comfortable by slowing cars and moving vehicle traffic further from the sidewalk,” the Coalition said. “Additionally, the new configuration maintains much-desired vehicle parking along the roadway.”
They also pointed to the shortcomings of the old setup:
“The previous configuration encouraged speeding, dangerous driving, and weaving in and out of traffic. Reducing the travel lanes from two in each direction to one limits speeding and makes the road safer.”
Still, Malray says she and her neighbors felt left out of the process and want more community engagement when changes like this are made.
“I’m so frustrated by this situation,” she said. “I’m so frustrated that this wasn’t laid out better or discussed with us,” she said.
It’s odd that CBS chose to contact Ian Grooms of “community organization Vibrant Clairemont” for this report. As a resident of Clairemont, I have never heard of the group although Mr. Grooms is a former member of the CCPG. An internet search of Vibrant Clairemont turned up only an Instagram account that began posting in August to encourage people to comment on the Clairemont Community Plan Update. The three other posts since then include photos and quotes from Colin Parent and Circulate San Diego, Bike SD, and the city’s website regarding the College Area community plan and Midway Rising. There are other groups in Clairemont that CBS could have reached out to for additional comment. These include the CCPG as well as the Clairemont Town Council, two groups that hold monthly meetings in Clairemont.