Frequent Santa Cruz Weekly letters contributor Mike Speviak explains why he thinks a bike boulevard would be a mistake.
I WOULD be the fiercest advocate of the King Street Bike Boulevard if I thought it had a chance of working without negatively impacting the existing traffic problems on the Westside.
Bike boulevards are a great solution when applied correctly. If you consider yourself able to be impartial and objective, I offer you a challenge. Take four days off during the work week. Use one day observing the whole length of King Street from 6:30am to 10pm, taking notice of when it is busy and what type of vehicles are present. Another day can be spent observing a busy Westside intersection (say, Bay and Mission) noticing the number of users (motoring, cycling, walking). Next, observe Mission Street from Swift to Chestnut from 6:30am to 10pm and compare with the information obtained from the King Street observation. Lastly, observe the activity at Mission Hill School from early morning to closing (1pm on Wednesdays).
You can do this or obtain a copy of the study done by Bicycle Solutions, a respected bicycling advocacy, education and transportation planning group from the Bay Area. This was submitted to the city on June 17, 2008 and is available from the Santa Cruz Department of Transportation or the Department of Public Works. It is very comprehensive and offers a variety of possible solutions. The study does address a diverter scheme to facilitate a bike boulevard. However, this was deemed as not likely to be successful for a few reasons, the most salient being that relevant Mission Street intersections are already at maximum level of service, and there is not a grid pattern of alternate motoring byways.
This means that if diverters were put in place, motoring traffic would congest at already-bottlenecked intersections. This would increase times for traffic clearing from one to two cycles to three to five cycles and would add to Mission Street traffic volume. This would cause an increase in gas emissions and noise pollution for each vehicle while also increasing hazards for cyclists and pedestrians. Further, denying access to Escalona for motoring through would add to these same problems.
Santa Cruz is a unique town with unique problems that require unique solutions. We cannot be compared to other cities (Palo Alto, Berkeley or New York) or other countries with different cultures (Japan). Yes, there have been two tragedies on Mission Street in the past few years. But please, do not grab for a solution that will not work. There are responses that can address hazardous conditions without contributing to them. Our local bike advocates, in collaboration and cooperation with city and county departments, have done some great work. That is why we have received a 2008 Silver Level Award from the League of American Bicyclists for being a bicycle-friendly community. Please do not succumb to self-interests of increased property values, appearing to be politically correct, or fear of losing street parking. Please do not succumb to promises of a facile, all-encompassing final answer or that your neighborhood won’t be affected. We’re better than that.
Be bold, Santa Cruz, but be smart! There is much work to do to ensure safe use of our roads for everyone.
Mike Speviak is retired and has resided in Santa Cruz for 25 years. He has been cycling for 60 years, motoring for 50 years and walking for more than 50 years.
