The city of Encinitas voted Wednesday night to remove a protected bike lane that runs in front of the San Dieguito High School Academy.
It's part of a larger effort that, if completed, would connect riders from the neighborhoods surrounding the high school to El Camino Real on the east side; and Coast Highway 101, and the Coastal Rail Trail, a region-spanning bike route through north county, on the west side.
“We want Encinitas to be a place for bike riders from 8 to 80 to be able to get around safely. And [a bike lane] helps kind of reduce the barrier to entry of biking safely around Encinitas,” Marley Jaoudi from Encinitas Bike Walk said.
But community pushback against the configuration is causing the city to redesign the project again. The city expects re-doing the redesign to cost more than $3 million.
Encinitas is not the first North County city to walk back its bike infrastructure. The city of Vista voted last July to remove protected bike lanes just months after installing them.
Currently, there is a mix of elevated and planter-protected bike lanes on Santa Fe Drive in Encinitas between Nardo Road and Bonita Drive directly in front of San Dieguito Academy.
The protected bike lanes were completed less than a year ago as part of the $4.15 million Santa Fe Drive corridor improvements (western phase) project. They were built as part of a larger effort to improve mobility options to and from Encinitas schools, according to the project website.
But community feedback paused the completion of the project, including the eastern phase, which had been awarded a contract for construction in 2024. That part of the project is currently awaiting its own redesign.
Community pushback was focused on the reverse-angle parking included in the original design and the traffic jams allegedly caused by the parking configuration.
“I do not find that people support it,” Encinitas Mayor Bruce Ehlers said at Wednesday’s city council meeting. “Most of the rank and file out there drive cars and they don’t understand back in parking. They don’t– they can't use it. They don’t understand how to use it.”
Ehlers said another issue was traffic jams blocking first responders.
“Emergency vehicles cannot pass during peak periods. There’s no place to pull over. That’s why we go to the buffered bike lanes, because then at least cars can pull over, make room for emergency vehicles, and we can get people to the hospital,” Ehlers said at Wednesday’s meeting.
Ehlers told KPBS that another concern is the fact that drivers have to turn right across the protected lane into driveways. He calls it a “right hook.”
“We've had fatalities in Encinitas due to right hooks,” Ehlers said. “And what I mean by a right hook is where the car wants to make a right turn. And rather than pulling over and blocking the bike path, which is what they should do, they should take control of the interference– the striped area, the green-white stripe area. They should take control so the bicycle stays behind him. If they don't, they stay out, or if they're forced to stay out because they are physically separated, when they make that turn, the bike hits them.”
But local advocates for safer mobility options disagree.
“We know that for the vast majority of users, the [ages] 8 to 80 crew, which is, you know, kids as young as 8, adults as old as 80, to make them feel protected and comfortable while riding on our busy city streets. They prefer protection and separation, and that's best done with actual separation, as in, a concrete barrier,” Aaron Hebshi with Strong Towns Encinitas said.
Streetsblog USA, a non-profit news site that covers mobility and transportation, recently published an analysis of a study that found paint-only bike lanes may actually be associated with an increase in crashes between drivers and cyclists. Off street trails and physically protected bike lanes are safer, according to the study.
Three options to re-do the redesign of the road in front of San Dieguito Academy were presented to the council in a November meeting. The approved design, Option B, was the most expensive option, with an estimated cost of $3.4 - $3.6 million. On Wednesday, the council approved a contract with an outside firm to finalize the design of the new redesign.
The southern side of Santa Fe Drive will revert to a paint-only bike lane that is sandwiched between parking and the flow of traffic.
Protected bike lanes are also disappearing west of Nardo Road and east of Bonita Drive. On those segments, there are a mix of elevated, sidewalk level bike lanes and physically protected bike lanes that will revert to paint-only lanes.
Council member Joy Lyndes, who was the lone vote against the redesign, said that the majority of people at the November meeting were in favor of keeping the protected lane.
“At this special meeting [in November] there were 121 pages of written public comment submitted with over 90% supporting not wasting the taxpayer money and supporting just finishing and improving, or ‘improve not remove’,” Lyndes said at Wednesday’s meeting.
“Those who were supportive of ‘improve not remove’ included the San Dieguito Academy board representative and leadership, the adjacent businesses including the church, and students,” Lyndes continued.
Lyndes also noted that the redesign would cost millions of dollars that could have gone to playground improvements at parks, drainage and flood infrastructure in Leucadia, rail crossings on the LOSSAN corridor, or a safe parking program for homeless residents.
Ultimately the council voted 4-1 to approve a contract with a firm for the initial design of the new configuration.
