Description
Dear City of Encinitas,
Due to the catering of giving bikes a full lane on the 101 and other roads in Encinitas, i have almost been hit by bicyclists who continue to run red lights at pedestrian crosswalks at chesterfield and at the entrance to cardiff state beach.
Its a real problem and no end in sight. It makes no sense to have 1 or 2 bike taking a whole lane a traffic on the street when there is a bike lane adjacent to the vehicle lanes. This is not safer its just frustrating to everyone which is a bad combo. Also a lot of kids who bike to the beach on electric bikes have been getting harassed by the road bikers for passing them? To much identity politics power for one group is not paramount over the individual. Which now they are the full authority over all the road and everyone on them.
11 Comments
City of Encinitas (Registered User)
Cac (Registered User)
EncinitasMan (Registered User)
calntvs (Registered User)
Tim (Registered User)
Closed Encinitas Engineering (Registered User)
Reopened calntvs (Registered User)
KDF (Registered User)
Encinitas Biker (Registered User)
Shaun Wallace (Registered User)
There have now been 19 cyclists crashes that we know of on this section because of the segregated Cycletrap and the barriers and posts in the road.
The cycling community is pushing to have this eye sore restored to how it was , meaning drivers would get two clear lanes again.
Please also protest to the city. Drivers got screwed, cyclists got screwed.
Serge I (Registered User)
What Shaun said plus please know since that new “bike lane” is physically separated from the roadway by the wheel stop barriers and bollards it’s technically/legally a “class 4 bikeway”, not a bicycle lane, which means cyclists are not legally required to use it.
That’s why cyclists are allowed to use the roadway and they are allowed full use of the lane because it’s so narrow (edge riding in such a narrow lane invites dangerously close within-lane passing - please change lanes to pass). The Bikes May Use Full Lane signs and sharrows are mere reminders of these facts; they don’t enable them.
But, yes, the immediate solution is to remove the physical separation and restore the class 2 bike lanes.
The long term solution is a road diet reducing the number of travel lanes in each direction from 2 to 1, and replacing all the traffic lights on 101 and Chesterfield with roundabouts. The road diet would create space for creating a two way multi use path as well as bikes lanes in each direction.