City plans to ease traffic on Rosecrans by studying the problem
Despite some minimal progress toward fixing roads in San Diego, traffic gridlock and ill-maintained (and the never maintained) roads remain a constant source of irritation for the city's cyclists.
Rosecrans Street is one of the busiest streets in the city with an average daily traffic of up to 100,000 vehicles. The city of San Diego, with help of a $300,000 grant from CALTRANS, has finally decided to ease the traffic problems on Rosecrans by studying the problem. The study could take years and any changes as a result of that study - that much longer.
However the good news is that the "goal of the study is to identify short-,mid- and long-term projects that will improve pedestrian access, bicycle facilities and accessibility, transit operations and facilities, and traffic flow in the corridor."
To date, the study has found that the lack of infrastructure, including a lack of bike lanes, has caused many to ride on the sidewalk. Additionally, based on weekday counts, the following intersections were found to have the highest amount of bicycle traffic:
- Rosecrans / Pacific Highway
- Rosecrans / Kurtz
- Rosecrans / Laning
- Rosecrans / Moore
- Rosecrans / Sports Arena
- Rosecrans / Nimitz
The study has also found that just striping a bike lane may not get usage by bicyclists as the speed limit on Rosecrans is too high for the more vulnerable riders such as children to be comfortable and feel safe while riding. Speed limit reductions and other traffic calming measures that can be implemented on Rosecrans Street are under consideration by the city.
The city is welcoming comments from the public. You are invited to submit comments to the city or contact the Project Manager, Oscar Valdivieso at ovaldivieso@sandiego.gov
San Diego Bike Blog Digest Holiday Version
Once again, I'm late in getting this post up. This fall has been a busy one, and with the holidays approaching, promises to be busier still. The blogs have been pretty quiet, too, but just in case you have a spare moment, here's the best of what our local bloggers have been writing.
- Farewell to My Car has gone well past her original 30 day trial, and has discovered the joys and perils of riding at night. She brings up the very good point that many local bicyclists are not adequately lighted for nighttime riding. We may not have winter in San Diego, but it does get dark early.
- Vélo-flâneur did a little underbiking in Santa Monica, and promises to say more later.
- And Life with Bicycle got dirty, had a bad day, and got yelled at.
Upcoming Solana Beach Highway 101 Streetscape Plan workshops
On November 19th and 21st, the city of Solana Beach will be holding Highway 101 Streetscape workshops that are open to the public for participation. Your participation in the workshops will ensure that Highway 101 will be transformed into a "more pedestrian and bicycle friendly environment, achieving a sense of cohesiveness, calming the flow of vehicular traffic along the corridor, and creating a livable street for all roadway users."
The Highway 101 Streetscape & Traffic Calming Workshop will be held:
On: Thursday, November 19, 2009
At: 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Where: City Hall Council Chamber
The Highway 101 Project Walk Workshop will be held:
On: Saturday, November 21, 2009
At: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Where: City Hall Council Chamber
For more details please contact : Dan Goldberg 858-720-2474
This Week in the San Diego Bike Blogosphere
Special Double Edition! Yes, I missed last week, so it's a double-dose of bike bloggerin' this week. Get out your reading glasses, Martha:
- Bike by the Sea got a new bike, considered the future of "cycle chic" and announced the first Red Carpet Ride (and made the news). Busy lady!
- Brown Girl in the Lane saw an emu, an ostrich, and an inspiration.
- City Heights on Two Wheels took a little tour and reflected on the strange mix of independence and dependence we tend to feel as bicyclists in a car-oriented world.
- Farewell to My Car made it 30 days without said car, made some progress on advocating for a Bike Station, and continued to firm up her reputation as one of San Diego's most prolific bike bloggers.
- Vélo-flâneur considered some of the practical aspects of lowriding. Low. Ri. Der.
- And the crazy cats at Velo Cult had some fun with two empty kegs of beer. No, really.
Imagining Los Angeles without cars
BikeSD reader, Travis, sent us this story from the L.A. Times. The story is about a group called cicLAvia, playing on the original name ciclovía, who wants to shut down major thoroughfares in Los Angles once a week and turn it into "a town where people ride their bikes and walk in the streets and the smells of tacos and veggie burgers drift through the air instead of exhaust." A pipe dream? Hardly. The idea originally began "thirty years ago as a response to the congestion and pollution of city streets" in Bogotá, Colombia.
If there is one thing Southern California is known for, besides the year round perfect weather, it is smog and the car-entrenched culture. But can Los Angelenos and San Diegans imagine life outside the automobile?
The idea of ciclovía came from the former Bogotá mayor Enrique Peñalosa, who decided to subscribe to the economic model of hedonics, a philosophy whose proponents focus on fostering not economic growth but human happiness. After being elected Peñalosa said,
A city can be friendly to people or it can be friendly to cars, but it can't be both,” the new mayor announced. He shelved the highway plans and poured the billions saved into parks, schools, libraries, bike routes and the world's longest “pedestrian freeway.
So what does it look like on that one day a week that major thoroughfares go back to the people? Watch the Streetsfilm video below.
We're very excited about what cicLAvia is doing and are inspired to try bringing those ideas to San Diego.