Hey, SLO Town, y’all ready for another “road diet“? That’s the euphemistic term the city uses to swallow up a traffic lane and create a protected bicycle corridor, this one proposed for South Higuera. The project will cost $10.3 million, but the city has $9.1 million grants. Taxpayers like you only have to pony up a little more than a million!
Is that steam coming out of your ears? Have you had it up to here? (I’m holding my gear up as high as I can.) You’re not alone. The protected lanes that have gone in around the city have been divisive to say the least. This new prosed one is no different.
At the last City Council meeting, Kathy Godfrey got up to say no: “I’m here in opposition to the road diet on South Higuera. I support and represent working families who are weary of road congestion here in San Luis Obispo.”
Gene Nelson, a Chumash Village resident, also said no to road diets, arguing that bicyclists should just ride real slow on the sidewalk with a bright headlamp on and stay off the street entirely. Harumph!
For people who don’t ride bikes, protected lanes seem like a waste of money, remove precious parking, and make it harder to see those spandex-clad health nuts and traffic scofflaws who don’t follow traffic rules anyway, jerks! Plus, have you noticed there are more cars on the roads than bicyclists? Hm? Why are we spending all this money for so few cyclists? (You’re heard, haters.)
Likewise, some bicyclists believe the protected lanes make them even more invisible to traffic. Every intersection and driveway is an opportunity to get hit. Cars turning right across a protected lane often don’t see or even look for riders. Does anyone like protected bike lanes?
Here’s the thing. Lots of people won’t ride a bicycle because they think it’s too dangerous, and it is. Those white “ghost bikes” around town are memorials to riders who’ve been killed on our streets. Drive, ride, or walk down South Higuera and you’ll probably spot one or two. Since 2019, Higuera has been the site of five fatal collisions, where four victims were walking or cycling. From Bridge Street to Fontana, there’ve been 49 collisions in five years! That’s the city’s highest collisions concentration.
The entire idea behind protected lanes is to encourage more people to get on bikes, and regardless of your opinion about their safety, a 13-year study published in the Journal of Transport & Health found that dedicated bikes lanes had 44 percent fewer deaths and 50 percent fewer injuries. Forbes reported that protected lanes increased safety, saved money, and protected the environment.
The truth is cars, bicyclists, and pedestrians—none of them mix well! Add in the slower people-powered bicycles and the slew of fast electric bike riders “sharing” the road, and the situation is worse. In a perfect world, people would respect one another and take extra care in being safe while driving, riding, or walking. Instead, there’s animosity and hostility. If you’re in a car, cyclists are annoying and entitled. If you’re on a bike, vehicle drivers are rude and reckless. If you’re on foot, it feels like you’re invisible.
Are you mad about the proposed new corridor? I get it, but if it leads to fewer deaths, accidents, and injuries, can you tolerate it?
In more intolerant news, Cal Poly students’ favorite co-opted holiday is coming up, where they arise before dawn, dress in green, and start pounding whatever alcohol they’ve amassed—BORGs, anyone? They wander onto the streets surrounding Cal Poly and party on, Wayne and Garth, with open containers and underage drinking. They annoy neighbors, maybe climb a phone pole, smash a windshield or two, collapse a garage roof, or head to campus to cause thousands of dollars in property damage to dorms. Sláinte! St. Fratty’s Day is only a month away!
Last year’s “celebration” involved about 7,000 people, and though the police presence was large, officers worked the edges of the street party to contain it. Exactly 189 citations were issued and 12 people arrested. Fines were doubled, so violations cost up to $1,000.
Meanwhile at Cal Poly, students were encouraged to rat each other out for bad behavior, and 117 student conduct reports were submitted to the university’s conduct office. Of course, many of the problems were driven by out-of-towners. Don’t worry, SLO Police Department is telling them not to come in paid social media posts targeting 18- to 26-year-olds from all over the state!
“We’re all aware that the event last year negatively impacted our local neighborhoods, and the university also experienced significant vandalism and property damage,” Cynthia Vizcanio Villa, Cal Poly’s senior vice president for administration and finance said. “Law enforcement will be highly visible and take a zero-tolerance approach.”
In other words, kiddos, don’t expect the city or the university to put up with your shenanigans again! They won’t tolerate it, dig? For those who slept through math class, zero-tolerance means total intolerance. But wait! Could this approach lead to another 2004 Mardi Gras riot situation? Please stand by. Δ
The Shredder is going to sit quietly under its desk and rest. Feed it something to shred at shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Health & Wellness 2025.
Law enforcement better follow through. Let’s crack some skulls.
Shredder, do you fail to realize that Federal Grants are taxpayer money as well?