Bike lanes in this town are going wild. Everywhere now, one sees carefully constructed curbs, exquisitely painted lanes involving a lot of green: all inspiring a great amount of WTFs on the part of those scoundrels who prefer to use automobiles, as the visual effect can be quite confusing to drivers, if not downright intimidating. Yet, I suppose it is all intended for the greater good.
The problem is that I rarely see anyone actually using the bike lanes. I did see a guy using one on Laurel recently, but he got back up on the sidewalk at the earliest opportunity, so I’m not sure if it counts. That was pretty much it for the day as far as I saw.
So what is going on? It this some sort of “build it and they will come” thing? If so, they don’t seem to be coming by bike. Mostly Teslas near as I can tell. Were studies done to assess the actual bicycle traffic before embarking on what appears to be massive spending on bike lanes?
It is proposed to spend more than $18 million extending a bike trail to Avila and require the seizure of private property to do it. How many bicyclists would actually benefit from it? Is it really worth it? You could help a lot of homeless people with that kind of money. Or would it just sit there, languishing in the sunlight like most of the bike lanes in this town?
Mark Henry
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Winning Images 2024.
I just let my five year old ride to and from his school today thanks to the newly constructed protected cycletracks and bike lanes! Something I would not have done in the previous configuration of the street. Yes, if you build it they will come. Don’t expect to see new bike riders showing up while everything is under construction things in an intermediate state of completion and having to dodge construction workers. Once protected bike lanes are finished and given a handful of months for everyone (drivers, bike riders, and pedestrians) to become familiar, you will see more and more people biking. Its important to consider that full build out of the entire protected bike network is necessary to ensure no gaps exist on their commutes so people feel safe biking. The City still has many gaps that still need to be completed (paint is not protection for distracted and speeding drivers). Just give it some time and you will see more and more people biking. Also, don’t take a count of bike riders on your 1 minute drive past the infrastrucutre. Sit on a corner for 5-10 minutes during normal commute hours and you will see plenty especially while schools and CP are in session. I see plenty of people using the new infrastructure every day. Its something you notice when you get out of your car and SLO down a little.
Regarding the Bob Jones trail connection, this is grant money that will go to another community to build bike paths if we don’t take advantage of winning the grant. Why not get some of our tax money back to spend within our community? Maybe we should just keep paying other communities to build our their paths instead? Please go check out Truckee’s Legacy trail to see how bike paths encourage tourism and bring additional value to the community. Its unfortunate that the property owner doesn’t see the community benefit they would provide by selling the un-utilized portion of their property for this project (they will be compensated even by if the property was acquired by eminent domain). They could be celebrated for helping bring such an amazing project to fruition, but its too bad they are being selfish for selfishness sake. Wealthy landowner have forgotten what it means to be a community unfortunately.
SLO has a fairly high rate of deaths by bike. The white “ghost bikes” around town are a good indicator of bike-related death rates in this town. Just last year a Cal Poly student was hit on his bike on Grand and died. Plenty of students do use the bike lanes, so while they’re not getting much traffic during summer, they get a fair amount of use during the academic year. Considering freshmen at the university aren’t allowed cars, and the amount of shenanigans they get up to, it’s probably for the best that the bike lanes are providing a shield from drivers. I do wonder, though, why the bike lanes tend to be in areas without the ghost bikes – seems like those should be the first locations on the checklist for the city planners.
For the Bob Jones/Avila bike path, I have a hunch it’ll bring some of SLO’s bike-mobile homeless to Avila; whether that’s good or bad for either town I’m not sure, but it seems a likely consequence. Regardless, it’ll provide a means for those not so fortunate as to own a car a means to get to the beach. I’m sure the students will appreciate the option!