Action Item: Send a Letter to ask the City of San Diego to Complete the Corridor; Implement a Protected Bicycle Facility along Park Blvd in Balboa Park
UPDATE, JANUARY 30, 2023: In early September, after months of extensive outreach, the City announced plans for protected bike lanes and separated bus lanes throughout most of Park Boulevard within Balboa Park. This is a massive win for active transportation within the City’s Crown Jewel; thank you so much to everyone who called into the planning meetings to voice your support for bikes and buses within the park! These lanes should be completed in early 2023. If you have additional questions, please contact us at talk@bikesd.org, and consider the Action Item below completed.
Since June 2021, BikeSD has been discussing with the city the opportunity to have a fully protected Class IV bicycle facility along the entire Park Boulevard corridor.
In Downtown, the city has recently implemented part of the Park Blvd section of the Downtown Mobility Plan, with the remaining segments of the class IV cycletrack already planned from K St to the I-5 bridge. From Village Place to Robinson Ave, SANDAG’s Uptown Segment 5: Park Blvd Bikeway is in the pipeline to provide improvements. And just last week, KPBS spoke with BikeSD board member Ari Criste to report on the city’s new plans to implement protected bike lanes on Park Blvd from Adams Ave to University Ave.
The last big stretch in Balboa Park is still up in the air. In November 2021, our campaign got the support of Uptown Planners, who wrote a letter in support of a class IV protected bikeway on Park Blvd in Balboa Park. The city has drafted plans for micromobility improvements to the corridor, but has not yet shared them to any community groups. We need your help to encourage the city to implement a fully-protected facility as part of the upcoming pipeline and street resurfacing project along Park Blvd in Balboa Park.
EVEN BETTER:
Write your own personal message to MayorToddGloria@sandiego.gov, StephenWhitburn@sandiego.gov, and jriveros@sandiego.gov, and please BCC: campaigns@bikesd.org. Modify this sample letter and copy/paste to your personal email app:
Dear Mayor Gloria, Councilmember Whitburn, and Transportation Director Riveros,
Thank you for the planned improvements for Park Blvd between University Ave and Adams Ave. My family and I appreciate using low-stress bike facilities to get around for our daily transportation needs.
In addition to the section of Park Blvd from University Ave to Adams Ave, we ask that the Balboa Park segment of Park Boulevard’s resurfacing efforts include a new Class IV (protected) bikeway. Park Blvd is a critical corridor between Uptown and Downtown – we are currently seeing a large volume of self-reported bicyclists using this path on a regular basis, according to open source heat maps such as Strava and Ride With GPS. Currently, micromobility users are expected to share this 2-lane roadway with parked vehicles and those driving 40+ MPH. Ideally, this road would be reduced to a single general-purpose lane traveling in either direction, a transit lane, and a protected bike facility.
Similar improvements have already been scoped out in the 2012 Bicycle Master Plan, which proposed building out a Class II (i.e. painted bike lanes) bikeway along the entirety of Park Blvd from Upas St to B St. The Balboa Park Master Plan also prescribes a bicycle trail along Park Blvd, and while a Class II bike lane would be a step in the right direction, pivoting to a Class IV protected bike lane would provide safer and more accessible infrastructure for all ages and abilities and align better with NACTO guidelines. Similar to how building more highway lanes induces greater vehicular traffic demand, building safer bicycle infrastructure induces greater bicycle traffic demand.
Besides inducing greater demand for bicyclists, safe bicycle infrastructure reduces carbon emissions within the park, slows down vehicular traffic, and improves pedestrian safety. Encouraging an increase in bicycle trips between significant commercial and residential cores (Uptown, North Park, and Downtown), as well as the numerous educational and cultural institutions along the corridor gets San Diego closer to its Climate Action Plan (CAP) goals of hitting Net Zero emissions by 2035. This upgrade is also in alignment with the 2021 Parks Master Plan which aims, among other things, to provide easy access to parks by walking, biking, and transit. Finally, by reducing speeds and protecting non-vehicle users, these improvements support the city’s Vision Zero goals.
Sincerely,
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