San Diego’s Bicycle Master Plan
Posted By Sam Ollinger on February 23, 2010
The City of San Diego is continuing work on its Bicycle Master Plan. With the aid of nationally recognized Alta Planning & Design, the city has come up with a list of top 40 projects [pdf link] and is now soliciting the cycling community’s input and suggestions. Kathy Keehan, Executive Director of the San Diego Bicycle Coalition (SDCBC) will be accepting suggestions until Wednesday, March 3.
According to Keehan, there is currently no timeline for when work on these projects are scheduled begin.
As the SDCBC has chosen to focus on the Urban Core in 2010, I’d suggest continuing to maintain that focus and place the top 30 project ideas around the Urban Core region.
What are your thoughts and ideas? Use the comments to discuss.
I have two questions:
1) Where can we find definitions of the facility types (Class II, Class III, Bicycle Boulevard, Cycletrack)?
2) Can we propose ideas that are not on the list?
Thanks,
Travis
Kearny Villa Rd. between Miramar Rd. and Ruffin Rd. didn’t even make the list, in spite of the killings of two southbound cyclists since May 2001. Another cyclist was hospitalized with serious injuries just last month. The City has reneged on every promise made so far to take corrective action and make this road safer for non-motorized road users.
I’m glad to see that this plan is moving forward! Looking at the list, there does seem to be a focus on the urban core, and this is good. It looks like they’re trying to solve the problematic Pacific Hwy/Barnett interchange, also good. I know that some people’s favorite projects, like an I-15 bike path from Mission Valley to City Heights, and making Utah Street (my old street!) a bike boulevard, have been left off.
I’d like to point out that there’s another area that deserves attention: University City and UCSD. It’s interesting to look at the figures showing “bicycle trip generator model” and “bicycle trip attractor model” that Alta came up with.
(Pages 42 and 43 of this PDF: http://tinyurl.com/sdbikeplan — this is part of the planning process for the entire county, but I think they’re working off the same data. Can’t find a similar doc on the city’s website.)
These maps show that there are a lot of trip generators and trip attractors in this area, second only to the urban core area.
I was glad to see that there’s a plan for bike lanes on La Jolla Village Drive, since this serves to connect the big trip attractors and trip generators in the area. But my pet project, Nobel Drive between Regents and I-5, got left out. This is too bad, because if you look at the maps closely, the southern portion of North UC (the area south of Nobel between Genesee and I-5) and the shopping/residential district just across I-5 (around Villa La Jolla Dr.) are both big trip generators, and the latter area is a big trip attractor. These areas are also shown as having large “bicycle barriers” (page 64 of the PDF).
This is basically my shopping route (to get to Trader Joe’s). I know a lot of students also bike through here. The “barrier” here is that Nobel has intermittent bike lanes. Where they end, you’re often dumped into the back of parked cars across the intersection. It seems there are two solutions to this: remove the parking (ain’t gonna happen, I’ve been told) or add sharrows to one lane in each direction, in those places where there is no bike lane and there is curbside parking. Seems like this would be a simple, cost-effective measure, encouraging cyclists to do what we already have the right to do (many of the cyclists I see here don’t seem to know this) and letting the drivers know that we belong in the middle of the lane in these spots.
If you bike around the UC/UCSD area and think this is a good idea, please chime in with your own comment. (The link to Kathy’s email address in the original post isn’t working, but I bet she’s following this conversation.)
[...] and yes, Los Angeles. Alta Design’s attempt to build a more bike-friendly Southern California spreads to San Diego. A San Diego area bike path poses a hazard to cyclists; so what else is new? Beautiful views of the [...]
Since no one’s answered Travis yet, I’ll hog some more electrons and have a go:
You’ll find definitions of the standard treatments, Class I, II and III, on page 13 of the PDF I linked to in my first comment. Bike Boulevards and cycle tracks are described in this document:
http://www.altaprojects.net/sandag/Documents_files/Task2-1Report.pdf
Basically, Class I is a separated bike path, like the San Diego River/OB bike path. Class II is a bike lane. Class III is just a sign indicated that a street is a good bike route.
A bike boulevard is a street where bikes are given priority, with markings such as sharrows and possibly barriers to through motor vehicle traffic.
A cycle track is a bike lane with a raised curb separating it from vehicle traffic, like the one on Friars Road by the YMCA. (Sometimes they’re bidirectional, like Friars Road, sometimes they’re not.) (It will be interesting to see how Alta is planning on having the Pacific Highway cycle track negotiate the merge with Barnett, which is the main danger spot.)
I may be wrong in the details of some of these definitions, so check the documents.
And yes, they’re soliciting comments about what’s been left off. I’d second the Kearny Villa Road comment, given everything I’ve heard about it over the years (never ridden it myself).
Travis:
I wasn’t sure about the exact definitions either, but it looks like the classes are standardized:
Separate Facility (a.k.a. Class I) – A non-motorized facility, paved or unpaved, physically separated from motorized vehicular traffic by an open space or barrier. Also called Bicycle Path, Bike Trail, Non-motorized Trail, Multi-purpose Trail or some combination thereof.
Bike Lane (a.k.a. Class II) – A portion of a roadway that is designated by striping, signing and pavement markings for the preferential or exclusive use of bicyclists. Most often these are done in couplets, each one being one way and adjacent to the outside through travel lane. Also called Bicycle Lanes.
Bike Route (a.k.a. Class III) – A segment of road designated by the jurisdiction having authority, with appropriate directional and informational markers, but without striping, signing and pavement markings for the preferential or exclusive use of bicyclists. Also called Bicycle Route.
Also, here’s some general information about Bicycle Boulevards:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_boulevard
But if anyone has a link to the specific Master Plan definitions of these facilities, please post them.
Sorry Larry, I didn’t see your post before I posted my comment. Thanks for the pdf link and the extra info!
I’m not so keen on bike lanes for Park Blvd, at least in the vicinity of San Diego City College and San Diego High School, particularly southbound. I’ve already had issues there in the past, a bike lane would make things worse there, especially if it were a “door zone” lane.
Thank you for the links to the documents.
I will cast my vote for the Class I bike path connecting Sorrento Valley Blvd to Eastgate Mall. It is not on the list of 40 projects, but I see it proposed as part of the Coastal Rail Trail in this document:
http://www.altaprojects.net/sandag/Documents_files/Task2-1Report.pdf
The current route to connect Sorrento Valley to UTC and southern destinations requires negotiating the freeway offramp at I-5 N and onto Genessee Ave.
Thanks,
Travis
This is a great list and glad to know that somebody is doing something.
Here’s a vote for anything that makes University a little less scary for bike riders.
Also, making a major bikeway out of Island downtown seems like a really great investment. The street is not a primary route for car traffic and yet extends across all of downtown. Any investment here would be a good choice.