The San Diego City Council this month adopted a "Complete Streets" policy that's meant to balance the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders and motorists when the city repaves and redesigns its streets.
The policy is not written into the municipal code, meaning city staff are not required to follow it. But after pressure from bike activists, councilmembers inserted amendments to increase transparency around when staff determine a repaving project is exempt from the policy.
"I know we need to maintain flexibility, but I do want to caution staff in overutilizing the exemption process," said Councilmember Kent Lee at the council's meeting on Dec. 11. "If we're serious about meeting our climate action goals, we need to be serious about implementing our policy aspirations as well."
City staff initially offered to present the council with one memo per year detailing which street repaving projects made use of the Complete Streets policy and which ones did not. After Council President Sean Elo-Rivera asked for more frequent updates, staff offered to publish two such memos per year.
"As with any policy, we keep an eye on it and see how it's working and if communication is consistent with what we hope for it to be," Elo-Rivera said.
The Complete Streets policy establishes a new mobility governance group that is meant to foster greater coordination between city departments. It's made up of the heads of five city departments: Engineering and Capital Projects, Sustainability and Mobility, Development Services, City Planning and Transportation. The governance group is tasked with reviewing possible exemptions to the policy and periodically reviewing its effectiveness.
The version of the policy that was initially presented to the council allowed city staff to use design guidelines developed by the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), which can offer greater protection to cyclists than the city's conventional approach to bike lane design.
But Councilmember Raul Campillo inserted language that doesn't just allow, but also encourages staff to maximize the protection for cyclists. Ultimately, Campillo said, he would like the level of protection built into bike lanes to be determined by a street's speed limit.
Anar Salayev, executive director of BikeSD, said more consistent use of NACTO design guidelines could eventually lead to more curb-level bike lanes that are elevated from the street.
"On the flip side, if we want to keep bicyclists on the same level as vehicles, then we could have more robust structures separating the two," Salayev added. "Rather than the flex posts that we have today, we could have thicker bollards or planters or even maybe trees that line the separation between cars and bicycles."
While the Complete Streets policy is not legally binding, the city is also working on an update of its Street Design Manual that will be written into the municipal code. Salayev said even with the council's amendments, he's not convinced the Complete Streets policy will have a meaningful impact on preventing traffic deaths and building a less car-dependent city.
"The optimistic part of me wants to say that it's a win, because now we have a Complete Streets policy whereas a couple of weeks ago we didn't," Salayev said. "The more cynical part says that it's nothing more than an incremental step, albeit in the right direction."
