Texas Street is getting new, wider bike lanes thanks to a housing development in Mission Valley
A BikeSD reader and another budding bike advocate, Savannah, wrote in earlier this week,
I am one of the lucky commuter cyclists here in San Diego who has the pleasure of riding up the Texas St. hill from Mission Valley to Normal Heights. They have been doing some construction on the hill for the last couple weeks and I have been on the hunt to figure out what exactly they are doing. They cut the majority of the bike lane off (not so bad during construction hours because they turn the right hand lane into a bike lane with cones, but it sucks after hours because it becomes two car lanes and a semi-ridable bike lane but at times it becomes too narrow and we have to jump out in the lane…and then the right lane traffic moves 3mph) I finally got a chance to talk to one of the construction guys today while riding up and he said his crew was just doing the drilling, but the ultimate plan is to put in a retaining wall. I’m not sure how big the retaining wall is going to be, but with how much of the hillside they chopped off, I think there should be a decent bike lane going up. Hopefully! I am going to keep talking to the crews out there and will keep you updated. I think it is incredibly important that we make sure a proper bike lane is installed in the end because there are a lot of cyclists who ride this way and it’s not a small or easy hill. We need the protection of a bike lane on this section of the road. Street lights would also be helpful for those of us who commute at night, but that’s a whole other can of worms.
I contacted our friendly bike coordinator, Tom Landre, to help answer Savannah’s question. Landre quickly contacted and received an answer from Bob Lathrop, the Project Manager overseeing the construction of Texas Street. This was Lathrop’s response,
1) We are installing 15 poles and lights along the entire west side of Texas street, from Camino del Rio South to Mission.
2) When complete there will be a retaining wall, a new sidewalk, new curb and gutter with drainage inlets, and YES a paved bike lane.
I was curious about this project so I began reading past meeting minutes from the North Park Planning Group and learned that this was part of a larger project relating to the construction of a housing development in Mission Valley that has been on the receiving end of some criticism. This new housing development will eventually have nearly 5,000 homes and apartments and the developers are touting the fact that this development will be a walkable community where residents can ditch the car (but sign up for a hybrid car-sharing program) and live sustainably thanks to the development’s proximity to the trolley line.
The promotional video above shows that this sustainable community will be nestled in between three major freeways where residents will be able to engage in a consumerist “shop till [they] drop” lifestyle. The video proudly acknowledges how close the development will be to the trolley line and that the residents will be minutes away from the beaches. Perhaps the developers are currently supporting a trolley line that will go to the beaches and I applaud their efforts.
I was also curious to see whether this housing development addressed the frequent flooding issues that periodically overwhelm Mission Valley but didn’t see the developers addressing this issue.
This housing development has been a topic of discussion since 2008. In an initial report to City Council seeking approval of this project, the developers stated that the
overall intent of the street system for Quarry Falls [now Civita] is to create a walkable community that is pedestrian friendly, designed to achieve a high degree of compatibility between vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists. Sidewalks will be lined with shade-providing trees and will include street furniture, lighting, and crosswalks with bulb-outs to minimize the crossing time for pedestrians. The main circulation streets will include bicycle lanes. Traffic calming has been integrated into the street design at intersections and crosswalks, as well as through the design of diagonal parking on portions of Russell Park Way and Quarry Falls Boulevard which required a deviation from the street design manual.
This initial proposal from 2008 continued to assert that the goal of the housing project was to reduce reliance on the automobile. However according to the developers, one of the streets that will be constructed as part of this project will require a deviation from the city’s guidelines on maximum grade (slope) where it is currently set at 7-8%. This new connector street between Qualcomm Way and Phyllis Place will have a grade not unlike many of the streets going into and out of Mission Valley currently do. This deviation from the city’s Street Design Manual makes bicycling even more challenging to potential cyclists so additional deviation is only going to discourage Civita’s residents from riding anywhere beyond the housing enclave.
Civita’s proposal to mitigate this grade deviation would be “electronic speed warning devices, higher friction coefficient pavement, signage and striping.” From this it appears that the stated goal to reduce reliance on the automobile was just a side note in light of the billions the company has promised the City.
Texas Street is one of the connecting streets into Mission Valley and Civita’s developers projected that there would be increased traffic resulting from the completion of this housing project. However, the North Park Planning Group seems to have grasped the notion of induced traffic and voted against adding a second vehicle lane but voted to widen the bike lane. So perhaps despite the grade deviations, San Diegans may be forced to choose the automobile to get to and from the valley. It’s too bad that the city can’t afford the same level of ease as they do automobile drivers by insisting on strict adherence when it comes breaking down one of our most significant barriers – our steep roads.