NEW BIKE LANES RILE BUSINESS OWNERS, RESIDENTS, CYCLISTS
University Heights latest to cope with new striping; altered, eliminated parking spaces
The freshly painted bike lane that runs along Park Boulevard in University Heights was designed for cyclists just like Collin Orozco.
Complete with a buffer zone and physical barriers to protect them from traffic, the bike lane runs along the 1-mile stretch from Adams Avenue to University Avenue, connecting other regional bikeways.
Yet on a recent Wednesday afternoon ride home for lunch, the daily bike commuter was cycling alongside the cars in traffic, eschewing the lanes that city officials say were installed to make biking safer and more accessible.
“I think they’re actually making things more dangerous for us,” Orozco said. “Daily bike commuters are used to riding in traffic, which makes cars more aware — and careful — of us than when we’re separated, so riding like this (in the road) is much safer.”
The city began restriping the bike lane along Park Boulevard last month, and though city officials said the project is nearing completion, plastic barriers have yet to be installed and pavement striping starts and stops randomly, zigzagging bikers into unmarked lanes.
“It’s obviously not done yet, but regardless, the parts that are done don’t make much sense,” he added. “It weaves in and out, around restaurant patios, and I can see it being a problem — even when completed — for inexperienced bikers.”
University Heights is the latest project in the city’s plan to complete a biking network that aims not only to create a safer way for cyclists to travel but also encourage others to get out of their cars and reduce their carbon footprint.
However, the confusing
scene was emblematic of the issues facing San Diego Uptown neighborhoods, as more bike lanes have been installed along major thoroughfares in recent years with even more projects under construction in other areas of the city like Encanto and downtown.
The bikeways are becoming a major point of contention in many of these neighborhoods. Residents, business owners and even some cyclists are left wondering if the new bike lanes are having their intended effect of attracting more riders and making things safer — or just taking away prized parking spaces.
Connecting bikeways
The protected bike lanes are part of a larger push for mobility plan updates citywide, specifically, the bicycle master plan updated in December 2013 to expand the city’s multi-modal transportation network and make cycling safer.
Countywide, the San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG, laid out a bicycle plan in 2010 that called for 515.5 miles of bike lanes to be completed by 2050.
From 2010 to 2021, SANDAG increased the amount of Class 4 bike lanes — like the one being installed on Park Boulevard — countywide from 2 miles to 20 miles, according to SANDAG’s 2021 State of Commute report released in June. This year alone, SANDAG officials said they will open 11 miles and start construction on 19 miles of new bikeways across San Diego County.
The plans have long been backed by cycling advocates like Andy Hanshaw, executive director of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition and chair of the city’s Mobility Board, who say dedicated bike lanes make it safer for cyclists.
“Connecting the bike network makes it safer and more accessible for people to ride bikes as an option for transportation,” Hanshaw said. “We applaud these agencies for considering climate action, considering safety — above all — and really making progress on plans that have been in place for several years.”
In 2021, 16 bicyclists were killed in San Diego, according to Dave Rolland, deputy director of communications in the office of Mayor Todd Gloria.
“Studies show that complete streets equipped with features that make travel safer for pedestrians and bike riders are good for business, public safety and quality of life,” Rolland said. “The mayor is also committed to meeting the ambitious goals in the city’s climate action plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and decreasing car trips and increasing bike trips is a major part of hitting those goals.”
Serge Issakov, a longtime member of the San Diego Bicycle Club who also serves on the mobility board, said bike lanes encourage more people to cycle.
Issakov may be correct, as various city and county statistics indicate cycling has been increasing over the past five years, including in new bike lanes, while a recent study ranked San Diego the 14th most bikefriendly city in the nation.
SANDAG’s 2021 report stated that the county saw a 27 percent increase in overall bike activity from 2017 to 2021. Part of that might be attributed to 2020’s historic “bike boom” during the pandemic, with the U.S. Census Bureau reporting that cities nationwide saw a surge in cycling traffic, which even prompted a bicycle shortage for some time.
However, in 2021, bike activity counted across eight corridors decreased 14 percent from the year prior, though three of these corridors were actively under construction in 2021, meaning people likely avoided them, per SANDAG’s report.
On the 30th Street bikeway in North Park, on one of the city’s more recently completed projects, an average of 314 cyclists travel down the 2.4-mile stretch that runs from Adams Avenue to Juniper Street each weekday, according to city data. That’s higher than the average of 252 in the first month after the counter was initially installed in January.
Opponents have challenged those figures, however, with some saying the counters are not accurate and had previously been seen counting one bike as two when first installed. That would making gauging whether the lanes are attracting new cyclists more difficult.
‘Save Park Boulevard’
It was in late March after the city slurried Park Boulevard in University Heights, that business owners said they first heard of plans to use the construction as an opportunity to install a bike lane along the thoroughfare. For months afterward, frustrated business owners reached out to the city, asking for clarity on the plans and questioning why the new bike lane was needed in a business district when several other regional bikeways already exist within a few blocks on residential streets.
Rolland noted the Park Boulevard project was called for years ago in the Uptown Community Plan in 2019 and the North Park Community Plan in 2016, both of which were “established with significant public input and review.”
Gloria said in an April press briefing that city staff would be reaching out to community groups receiving bike lanes to explain the projects. However, Marc Johnson, president of the University Heights Community Association and a property owner in the area, said that never happened.
Moreover, Johnson said the project as it stands today doesn’t line up with previous community plans, which include Class 2 bike lanes that use pavement striping and signage to allocate a portion of a roadway for bicycle travel, rather than the separated Class 4 lanes.
Carmen Cooley-Graham, whose family has owned J.A. Cooley Museum for decades, began a petition to “Save Park Boulevard.”
On display at the museum are more than two dozen automobiles — and even some bicycles — from various eras. “So yes, we know transportation,” Cooley-Graham said. “We’re not so much against the bike lanes; we just see the f laws in the plans.”
To date, the petition has garnered 1,076 signatures online via change.org and 578 written signatures, calling on the city to work with the community to find better solutions.
“I actually have (cyclists) coming in and signing it after riding it, saying, ‘You’re right — it’s not safe,’ ” Cooley-Graham said. “I don’t want to be right, I just want to do right for my community.”
On May 5, city staff presented the bike lane project to the University Heights Community Association and detailed the reconfiguration, where “floating” parking spots would result in the loss of 88 parking spaces, or 35 percent of the available spots, with 165 spaces left on the boulevard, as well as the removal of a center turn lane in some areas.
Since then, business owners have raised concerns over the removal of parking in the highly trafficked area they say already lacks enough spaces and contended that the removal of the center lane would further impede traffic for delivery trucks and rideshare drivers.
Ferrari and Sonny Zizzo, co-owners of Tiger Eye Hair, moved to Park Boulevard from Golden Hills in November, mainly due to the lack of parking in the area. Now, the bike lane has cut parking on their University Heights block in half.
The hair salon is situated on a stretch of Park Boulevard from Howard Avenue to El Cajon Boulevard with a museum, restaurant, tattoo shop, massage parlor and pet groomer — all businesses where customers often stay for extended periods of time and, therefore, are extremely reliant on parking, Ferrari Zizzo noted. “I do think it’s going to make our business suffer,” she said.
Councilmember Stephen Whitburn said that while he understands parking concerns, safety is of utmost importance. “My chief responsibility is to protect the safety of the residents I represent,” he said. “Several people have died while riding bicycles in my district, and bike lanes are a necessary safety measure that will help prevent more tragedies.”
Whitburn and Rolland both said the city is actively working to identify opportunities to add parking on side streets to make up for the lost spaces. So far, room for 55 spaces has been identified on adjacent streets through the conversion of parallel parking to angle-in or head-in parking.
Residents and business owners marked the start of the bike lane’s construction on June 13 with a protest at the University Heights sign.
Just a couple blocks away at Parkhouse Eatery, owner Tony Loiacono was surprised to see a bike lane painted around his temporary outdoor dining structure later that week.
While he is in the process of applying for a permanent permit, Loiacono said the outdoor structure will have to be rebuilt to meet new regulations and may not even be approved in the end. “If I have to take it down, they’re going to have to repave it,” he said.
In the two weeks since the Park Boulevard bikeway was installed, Loiacono saw a 5 to 7 percent drop in sales. “And with that loss in revenue, I didn’t see an influx of bikes,” he noted.
The standards for Class 4 bikeways are broad, so engineers can account for barriers in the roadway like the outdoor eateries, according to Issakov, the city mobility board member.
“On the one hand, it’s good that they can be flexible ... but on the other hand, they end up doing some pretty weird stuff sometimes,” Issakov said.
Kent Rodricks, a disability parking advocate, said these inconsistencies can also cause problems for some of the most vulnerable of drivers: those using the new floating accessible parking spaces where they’re sandwiched between oncoming vehicles — and now bike traffic — while maneuvering around their own vehicles.
“What’s happening is unconscionable and, I would argue, illegal,” he said, noting he doesn’t believe the new spots are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. “It’s not safe for anyone.”
While city officials said the restriping increased the number of ADA spaces, Rodricks, who uses the spots, said they are dangerous — and will dissuade him from going to University Heights at all.
Issakov also has concerns about creating a physical barrier between cyclists and oncoming traffic, which he said actually encourages “mindless, dangerous behavior.”
“The people they’re trying to attract are the very ones who probably don’t have a whole lot of experience riding,” he said.
The separation counters the mindset needed to ride safely, Issakov explained, making riders feel safe from traffic while allowing drivers to forget about them, which can backfire when they approach intersections where they have to intersect.
North Park businesses roiled
Meanwhile, neighbors in North Park are still in turmoil over their own bike lane, nearly a year after the 30th Street bikeway opened on Aug. 1.
Many expressed their simmering frustration regarding the bike lane during the North Park Planning Committee meeting on June 20, telling chair Kate Callen they don’t feel heard by the city, as their businesses continue to suffer.
“My entire focus right now is on reassuring angry North Park community members — residents, small businesses, property owners — that their views matter, at least to their planning group,” Callen said.
Scott Kessler, executive director of the Adams Avenue Business Association, noted that the parking spots promised to be added on adjacent streets have been slow to materialize.
“If we replaced the parking on the side streets at the same time as we were moving it, there would be so much less complaining and economic impacts for the small business owners,” Kessler added.
Roanna Canete, who owns The Gluten Free Baking Co., said her revenue has started to tick back up, but only because she’s gotten creative.
Though Canete spoke with city staff about reinstalling a commercial loading zone near her business, which lacks alleys or back doors to receive deliveries, she has not heard back since March 30. So instead, she went to the owner of a nearby home and asked if she can receive daily baked goods deliveries in his driveway for 15 minutes each morning.
Canete said it has taken the burden off emotionally, but she’s still hurting financially, with revenue reportedly down 35 percent, a slight improvement from the 50 percent decrease she’d reported back in February.
To make ends meet, Canete also constructed a retail space at her baking facility in Clairemont where parking is more accessible. “But even with that shop open ... it doesn’t offset the loss that we still have in North Park,” she added.
Next up is Encanto. More than 2 miles of bike lanes — both the protected Class 4 and on-street Class 2 — are part of the Market Street Complete Street project between 47th Street and Euclid Avenue. The lanes, along with wider sidewalks and medians, plus resurfacing and curb work, are meant “to make biking and walking around this popular Encanto corridor safer and easier,” according to the city.
The project is expected to be finished next year.