The Encinitas City Council on Wednesday approved a $3.8 million paving contract and voted to keep existing striping on Birmingham Drive after residents opposed a proposed bike lane.
The agenda item included plans to restripe Birmingham Drive with a new eastbound, uphill bike lane, drawing strong opposition from several public speakers who raised concerns about safety and transparency.
“I find it disturbing that important restriping on an artery like this could be initiated more or less anonymously in a 400-page document on pavement maintenance,” said Ron Medak, speaking as a resident and commissioner on the Mobility and Traffic Safety Commission. “Birmingham is very dangerous … Liverpool (Drive), as somebody suggested, is a very good alternative, much less traffic.”
Several speakers, including representatives from Cardiff 101 Main Street and the Cardiff Town Council, argued that Birmingham’s narrow lanes and steep grade make it unsuitable for a bike lane.
“The proposed eastbound bike lane would remove approximately eight feet of roadway, about four feet from each side,” said Rahul Deshpande, a member of Cardiff 101 Main Street and chair of the Cardiff Town Council. “This would dangerously narrow the space available for vehicles, increasing the risk for both drivers and cyclists.”
If you go look at street view of this street and the proposed alternative Liverpool Drive, you can see a few things:
- Eastbound Birmingham is already so wide that drivers are leaving enough room for bikes anyway.
- Liverpool has street parking where Birmingham does not, so obviously any reuse of that roadway for bikes would face vociferous opposition.
- The street is steep for bikes, but there aren’t really alternatives to the grade up from the ocean.
So yeah, obviously classic bad faith socal nimbyism. All of that could be solved by the American local government’s worst enemy: physical separators.
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Narrowing lanes is worthwhile on its own merits and then you might as well add a bike lane if even one person would use it.
"Birmingham is very dangerous … Liverpool (Drive), as somebody suggested, is a very good alternative, much less traffic.”
Erm, isn’t the reason bikelane exists because the road is dangerous? If the road is less traffic and safer, there’s absolutely no point for a bikelane to exists.
The best way to reduce the danger on roads is to physically prohibit cars from being on them.
