The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) is in the planning process of a project to improve the bicycle infrastructure in the North Park – Mid-City area. The first Advisory Group meeting for this project was held on January 30th in City Heights and will be followed by additional meetings open to the public to solicit ideas and insights into what this plan should include.
The project is scheduled to be in the planning and feedback stage until Fall 2013 at which time a final report will be issued and the results of community input will be taken into consideration by engineering and then construction. The dollars allocated to this project have not yet been determined. (Read: The more people that show up, speak up, and act up the more likely this project will receive attention and funds to make it a reality and not just another plan that finds itself in a waste bin rather than implemented on our streets.)
Minneapolis beats SD in bicycling rankings annually. Because it’s warm and tropical
I attended the first meeting and have attached a pdf issued by SANDAG summarizing the discussion that evening. The project lead for SANDAG is Bridget Enderle, Associate Active Transportation Planner for SANDAG. If you can’t attend a meeting or would like to contribute your thoughts in advance of a meeting Bridget can be reached at Bridget.Enderle@sandag.org. The official website for the project can be found here.
I’m excited to see the city giving attention to bicycle infrastructure and encouraging more residents to ride to work or leisure. San Diego has a prime climate for bicycling and I hope to see BikeSD realize the vision of making San Diego a world-class bicycling city. In addition to this Mid-City project, there is a similar effort to improve the bicycling environment in the Uptown area.
Don’t sleep on SANDAG’s dime
The route corridors presented at the initial meeting as being focus points (which are subject to change and adjustment as necessary) were:
- Meade Avenue from Park Boulevard to Fairmount Avenue
- Orange Avenue / University Avenue from Park Boulevard to 70th Street
- Landis Street / Wightman Street from Park Boulevard to Interstate 15
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 6, 2013 from 6:00 – 8:30 PM. the location has not yet been set but if you are interested in this project and/or have input concerning these neighborhoods please mark your calendar and make an effort to attend. Again, if you can’t attend in-person you can send your comments directly to Ms. Enderle at the email above. If you prefer you can send them to me via the comments section or by email and I’ll present the feedback I receive at the meeting in person.
There is some good momentum in the San Diego bicycling world at the moment and hopefully SANDAG can bring additional resources and dollars to build on recent accomplishments like the first, second, and third bike corrals in the city (Hillcrest and North Park), improved bicycling lanes on Highway 101 (Encinitas), and the coming debut of a bike-sharing program in San Diego.
How many bike lanes would this project build?
John P. Anderson
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This is a great big good thing for San Diego. We really do need mainly east-west bike freeways for people who want to make clean-energy and otherwise healthy commutes.
yes! bike paths, biking, bike-ability, all good all good… but i always hope it isn’t only with respective to some fast paced biking professionals standards, the kind that seem to run the “bicycle coalition” at every political meeting… the kind of biking MOST people don’t do…
I am a shopper biker… (my boyfriend, the super biker clown, is embarrassed that i have a basket on my bike, and a kick stand ) I stroll on bike, i walk up the hills, i am a rolling pedestrian… I hate those bikers who almost run me over while i’m cleaning up the trash on rose creek in pacific beach while they wanna haul ass somewhere fast in their squads on saturday morning… i heard “going slow” is good for your heart…
Micaela – I’m with you there. I’m comfortable going fast or slow, but usually have a baby seat on my bike and am going slower as a result. At the first meeting it was a mix of the two, but probably more people that are ‘hard core’ bikers than not. A few spoke up about the need to make biking more accessible to casual riders, which I completely agree with. Fast bikers are going to ride regardless of facilities, but allowing a broader spectrum of riders to get from A to B would really help to swell ridership numbers and consequently provide a basis for additional dollars, infrastructure, safety measures, etc.
ps, these “bike pathers” put “sharrows on the BUSY streets!!! (don’t know north park biking, but PB biking ,they are on grand ave where cars really go fast, and mission blvd, heavy traffic… what are they thinking?? the streets i would NEVER bike on… where are the alternated routes indicated? the mellow routes… for the fast pacers, let’s dedicate a freeway lane from here to there… let’s invite lance armstrong the super fast guy to lead them…
I think sharrows are often used because they are low-cost and easy to ‘install’. They do help to make drivers think a bit and be aware that bicyclists are in the area. The corridor routes for this project aim to utilize less busy roads for bicycles (instead of El Cajon using Meade, instead of University using Howard / Orange). This seems like a pretty good approach and wouldn’t be a high anxiety / high speed setting for cycling.
This is a great idea! I work in the area and some of my students only method of transportation is their bike. This will make it more safe for them to come to school and hopefully will encourage those who cant afford to take the bus be willing to ride their bikes to school as well.