Narrow Micheltorena

My husband and I have lived and worked on Micheltorena for almost 30 years. I am an advocate of bike lanes, but Micheltorena is a narrow street. I strongly question whether it is wide enough to accommodate the three lanes of motor traffic (as they exist at each intersection in question) plus the two bike lanes that are being proposed by the city and being considered at the City Council hearing Tuesday, February 23.

One drive down these busy blocks clearly shows that at the intersections at State Street, Chapala, De la Vina and Bath, all available space is already taken up by the three existing motor traffic lanes. In addition to these intersections, there are existing bus and trolley stops on the street to be considered. I have been asking to see a plan, a scale drawing, of what these bike lanes would look like if the parking on the street were to be eliminated — but thus far no one has responded. As the debacle at the entrance to the Granada parking lot on Anacapa Street attests to, it is expedient and just good sense to look at this situation from every possible angle before leaping into something that has the potential of turning into a huge mess.

It seems wiser and safer to turn our attention for an east-west bikeway to Sola Street one block away. On this wider and quiet street, no public parking would be taken away, and dangerous car-bike conflicts at every intersection could be avoided.