Micheltorena Slipup

Nice job with the Weird Ending, Mr. Welsh. Sorry you had to stay up past your bedtime, to provide a reality check. You picked up something the Santa Barbara City Council apparently failed to fully grasp, the problematic legal status of the CEQA issue. I found it interesting that the city attorney had to get back on the mike and clarify that the motion to approve the Bicycle Master Plan should not indicate that he was going to “take care of it.”

Beyond that, there was little recognition of where all the lanes would go, given the existing road width of the Micheltorena intersections: 36 feet curb-to-curb. Which raises the question of which lane the five council members are occupying.

If the three 10-foot-wide undersized vehicular lanes are retained (one turn lane, and two through lanes), and two class II bicycle path lanes are added (6 1/2 feet wide, unless they are reduced to a dangerous 4), that requires 43 feet of road width. Even splitting the 7-foot shortage in half between each side of the road, you still have to widen the road 3 1/2 feet into the planter areas at the four affected intersections along Micheltorena, which would require relocating the telephone poles, the light-standards, and the existing traffic signals (at least two). If the existing utilities are not planted in the sidewalk area, where would they go?