An ambitious plan to build 77 miles of bicycle lanes throughout the San Diego region is behind schedule — with less than four miles open to the public and more than $60 million spent.
Officials with the San Diego Association of Governments have said that much of that money has been for used for design and community outreach, which s for roughly 40 percent of an average project under the program.
The region will see, according to the agency, more than 50 miles of new lanes rolled out in the next three years.
“Regardless of how many miles we have open to date, we have a tremendous amount of work in the planning that we’ve done,” said Charles Stoll, director of land use and transportation planning for SANDAG.
“Very few of these projects are just putting new stripping down,” he added. “These projects tend to be much more capital improvement intensive.”
The $200-million campaign was launched in 2013 to jump-start the construction of a countywide network of lanes — some of which are so-called protected lanes designed to separate vehicle traffic from cyclists using physical barriers.
For example, car parking in a number of locations is being redesigned to be farther from the sidewalk to create a buffered lane for cyclists.
SANDAG officials said the agency won’t meet a self-imposed deadline to have the lanes built within a decade but that about 68 miles of lanes and pedestrian improvements will be in place by 2023.
“There is no other jurisdiction anywhere in the country that has committed all at once $200 million for bike projects — not Seattle, not Portland, not, nowhere,” said Chris Kluth, Senior Regional Active Transportation Planner with SANDAG.
Money for the project comes from Transnet, the region’s half-cent sale tax, as well as state and federal funding.
Bicycle advocates have criticized the agency for the slow rollout, as well as making changes to projects in order to appease business owners, some of whom fear the new lanes will hurt retail sales by displacing parking and increasing traffic congestion.
Building protected bike lanes can require removing parking spaces from a neighborhood and in some cases removing an entire lane of car traffic.
“They’re reluctant to make choices that are going to rankle anyone,” said Colin Parent, executive director of the think tank Circulate San Diego. “So we get these mediocre projects.”
Most notable, planning for the Uptown Bikeways project — which includes lanes from Old Town to Hillcrest to Bankers Hill — was subject to dozens of contentious public meetings over recent years.
SANDAG’s transportation committee made concessions to the Hillcrest business community in 2015, nixing planned bike lanes along University Avenue between First and Ninth avenues. The move was intended to save parking spaces, but it also created a conspicuous gap between lanes planed in Hillcrest and North Park.
“We have a responsibility to balance people opinions,” said Del Mar City Councilman Terry Sinott, who chairs the SANDAG board. “We want to respond to the proponents of biking. We’re very anxious to do that. But we have to hear from property owners, city planners, so that we create a project that has long term success.”
The city of San Diego last year announced it would build the missing lanes anyway, displacing dozens of parking spots on University Avenue while also adding angled parking on nearby side streets for a net gain of 19 spaces.
This pleased cycling advocates who have cautiously praised the agency.
“I’m excited for the next couple years when the cycle tracks actually start popping up,” said Andy Hanshaw, executive director of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, “but as I’ve learned over the last six years, you have to push for every one of those projects. We have to see them through to implementation.”
In the next two years, SANDAG expects to complete about nine more miles of bicycle lanes, including some pedestrian improvements.
The 24-mile Bayshore Bikeway, which circles around San Diego Bay, is expected to see upgrades by the end of the year along Harbor Drive in National City.
The Inland Rail Trail between Escondido and San Marcos is planned to be extended west through Vista to Oceanside also by the end of the year.
By the end of 2019, the 44-mile, partially constructed Coastal Rail Trail from Oceanside to downtown San Diego is planned to have two additional sections completed, including in Encinitas and parallel to Interstate 5 between La Jolla and Pacific Beach.
The envisioned San Diego River Trail from the ocean to Santee is also slated to get a significant upgrade around the Qualcomm Stadium site.
However, the more significant change for SANDAG may lay ahead in urban areas where many residents oppose the overhaul of their local streets.
Perhaps the biggest challenge will be in finalizing designs for sections of the 13-mile North Park Mid-City Bikeways project, which includes changes to University, Orange, Monroe and Meade avenues, as well as Landis Street.
“SANDAG promotes a lot of stuff and they don’t talk about the bad and the ugly,” said Talmadge resident Ralph Teyssier. “People are just really frustrated that they’re actually impacting traditional neighborhoods.”
Teyssier said he doesn’t necessarily oppose bike lanes, but he feels that the agency hasn’t been fully transparent with how redeg local streets, such as adding traffic circles and signals, will impact congestion.
Once SANDAG installs the 77 miles of bike lanes, the agency has plans for dozens of additional projects. The county currently has more than a 1,000 miles of bike lanes, according to the agency.
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