The San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG, broke ground on two “Complete Streets” projects Thursday on Orange Avenue and Central Avenue as part of the larger North Park | Mid-City Complete Streets project.
The projects on Orange and Central will add 3.3 miles of new bike lanes and routes, along with traffic-calming measures and other safety improvements, in the North Park and Mid-City areas at a total cost of $21.6 million.
They’ll also connect to other regional bikeways like those on University Avenue, Landis Street and Meade Avenue; the SR-15 Commuter Bikeway; and by extension, bike routes on 30th Street, Park Boulevard, Pershing Drive and Fifth Avenue.
“Orange Avenue and Central Avenue are key pieces in creating a mobility network that allow people to travel around the Mid-City area with greater safety, without experiencing gaps in their journey,” said Joe LaCava, San Diego City Council president and First Vice Chair of the SANDAG board of directors.
And City Council member Sean Elo-Rivera, who represents the area, part of District 9, said these changes would be transformative for residents in the neighborhood.
“Orange Avenue and Central Avenue are lifelines to this community,” Elo-Rivera said. “They connect families to schools, transit plazas, parts, jobs, and to each other. And right now, these corridors don't reflect the community's needs. So the projects that we're building will provide safer crossings, expanded sidewalks, and traffic calming measures that pedestrians, especially our young people and seniors, can get where they're going without fearing for their lives.”
Work on the Orange Avenue bikeway is expected to be completed by 2028, and the Central Avenue project is expected to open in 2027.
SANDAG calls these projects “Complete Streets” because they improve safety for all road users, including drivers and pedestrians.
“The projects range from pavement and pothole repairs to buffered and separated bike lanes, to enhanced sidewalks for pedestrians, all key to improving safety, accessibility and mobility for all the users on that roadway,” LaCava said.
The project on Orange Avenue will add 2.1 miles of “buffered” bike lanes as well as median islands, a traffic circle, curb extensions, raised crosswalks, and new road paving along the route, according to a SANDAG press release.
It will look similar to the bike route on Meade Avenue that runs parallel to Orange Avenue on the north side of El Cajon Boulevard.
SANDAG calls this type of bike route a “bike boulevard,” or Class V bikeway. The “buffered” bike lanes are only painted, creating no physical separation for bike riders from cars and other vehicles.
But the added traffic calming measures help create a safer route for riders than the current configuration, which includes no bike facilities, or Class II painted bike lanes without the added features.
“If you have vehicles going slow enough to where it’s comfortable for a cyclist and pedestrians to share the roads, the sidewalks with them, then all of a sudden protection isn't that big of an issue,” said Anar Salayev, executive director of the advocacy group Bike SD. “And we see this in places like Copenhagen, like Amsterdam, like Taiwan, where they're sharing the roads with their vehicles. Because the vehicles are forced to slow down, like they do on Meade, and like they will soon do on Orange, it is a much more comfortable experience without having to have dedicated protected bike lanes.”
SANDAG has been planning the Orange Avenue bikeway since at least 2019, when this fact sheet was released.
A similar fact sheet for the Central Avenue project shows it has been in the works since at least 2018.
This bike route will run parallel to Interstate 15 on its east side and create a mix of Class I separated paths, Class II painted lanes, Class III routes, along with traffic circles, raised crosswalks, and other intersection improvements.
These projects will add to the network of bike routes in the city’s urban core. Along with downtown, these are the most densely populated neighborhoods in San Diego and where the most new homes are being built.
Complete Street projects are intended to complement this development, providing residents with better facilities for walking, biking, and taking transit around town.
“This is very personal to me,” Elo-Rivera said. “This is quite literally a road that I ride down on a weekly basis with the most important thing in my world, which is my 3-year-old son, and the, you know, the stretches between the protected areas to ride are the ones where I have to be most vigilant, where I really have to pause and consider, you know, the time of day that we're going and whether or not it's a safe time to go there.”
Elo-Rivera said the projects will make a huge difference, giving residents better access to opportunity and the rest of the city.
“When we make it easier for communities to connect with one another, when we make it safer for them to connect with one another, we're helping build community,” Elo-Rivera said.
