North Park to Become More Bike Friendly?
Posted By Thomas Bahde on July 22, 2010
If you’ve ridden eastbound on University Avenue from Park Boulevard to Boundary Street (or the other way), you know that North Park’s main arteriole is a crowded, auto-centric, and often dangerous stretch of road. It also happens to be one that is used heavily by bicyclists who prefer its slightly gentler hills to those of side streets. According to a story on SignOnSanDiego, proponents of a University Avenue redesign want to remove parking on the busy road, add bus only lanes, and introduce other traffic calming measures to make North Park more walkable and bikeable.
But there is not much in the plan that actually sounds good for bicyclists. Parking would be moved to angled spots on sidestreets, where drivers would have to back out, one of the most dangerous car parking situations for bicyclists. Without an accompanying bike lane, bus lanes perpetuate the problem of sandwiching cyclists between buses on their right and cars on their left, a situation that already intimidates both seasoned and inexperienced cyclists. And median strips, while good for pedestrians, often force bicyclists into either mid-block curb hopping, or into left-hand turn and u-turn zones, where the potential for encounters with inattentive drivers increases.
Although the idea to increase neighborhood viability by decreasing auto congestion is certainly to be applauded, especially in San Diego, the proposed plan for University Avenue seems poorly conceived from a bicyclist’s perspective. Remove the parking (and don’t try to make up for it on side streets), forget the medians, and add both bus and bicycle lanes. Also, throw in a traffic signal between Texas and Utah while you’re at it so pedestrians don’t have to take their life into their hands to cross. Reducing speed and congestion is a good start, but let’s think more broadly about what a complete University Avenue might look like.
I read the same article this morning. While I agree with most of your comments, as someone who lives right in the area that’s going to be affected, it’s unrealistic to just say to remove the parking, but don’t make up for it anywhere else. Right now, that area is already having parking stress, due to the recent increases in restaurant and bar traffic, and a couple of relatively recent condo projects. Just removing the parking will just put more parking stress on the residential streets, and will cause more problems for bikes further into the residential areas. One of the most dangerous areas for bikes in North Park is in the area right around 30th and University, where, even on the residential streets, drivers are so engrossed in looking for street parking that they aren’t looking out for anyone else, especially bikes.
I would prefer a residents’ only parking district, like in Hillcrest or around San Diego State, which would force the restaurant and cars into the parking garage, instead of allowing the cars to play cat and mouse with the bicycles around the area while they’re looking for street parking.
@Ann: Thanks very much for your thoughtful comment. I also live, ride, and drive in the potentially affected area. The idea of resident-only parking is interesting and probably a good one, but I don’t think removing parking from University itself would glut the neighborhood streets much more than they already are. In fact, I wouldn’t agree that car parking in North Park is a problem. The solution to hard-to-find parking is simple: don’t drive. The harder it is to park, the greater the demand for improved biking, walking, and public transit options. Make it way *harder* to park a car in North Park and maybe we’ll see streets for people instead of streets for cars. Maybe someday we’ll even get a trolley line.
Regarding the diagonal parking, the City could install back-in angled parking,which is much better for bicyclists. It’s new in San Diego so some people are bound to object, but they have been using it in Seattle for 30 years. It’s no harder than parallel parking. Solana Beach has tried it and is going to use it on Hwy 101.
The solution for the parking shortage is to stop under-pricing it. There are well-established principles for how to price parking so there is enough turnover to make sure parking is always available. Find a copy the High Cost of Free Parking if you are interested to know more.
check out 2nd street in belmont shore in long beach, a sharrows with multiple lights has turned a high speed death trap into a shopping pedestrian dream. i work in the area and ride my bike every day, it’s the best solution i’ve seen so far.
I currently work in North Park and commute in using the 7 bus so I’m definitely for a dedicated bus lane, but I’m also looking to move into the neighborhood so that I can walk/bike and watching bikers try to navigate University is pretty hair raising, esp if they’re in a group. I’d be great if the street could be wider, but it obviously can’t. I think a bus and bike lane addition would be a great improvement.
Charge more for parking. We’ve got budget issues and there’s a cash cow that the city could ring in: more costly parking.