Take Back the Sidewalks
I am a recreational bicyclist who has spent many vacations seeing parts of the world and our nation via a bicycle. I am so grateful for the bike routes that have been developed in Santa Barbara. The Obern trail and the mid-Goleta bike trails (and all the other local paths) are such a boon for bicyclists. The rail trail from Ventura to Ojai is a gem as is the trail from the Rincon to Ventura.
I also commend the city for finding a way to remove bicycle traffic from a section of the dangerously congested and heavily trafficked Milpas Street. Making Alisos street a designated route was a great answer. I do believe it could have been done with just stop signs and striping at intersections rather than the millions of dollars spent on dangerous channeling, vision-obscuring signs, and removal of parking spots on the already limited spaces on Alisos Street. (Hopefully the project had the agreement of the residents of that section of street who are now unable to make a left turn.)
That said, on Milpas, and nearly everywhere else in town, bicyclists have taken to riding electric bicycles at great speeds down the sidewalks. (Hopefully the plan to create a dual-purpose bike/pedestrian path in front of Santa Barbara Junior High has not encouraged this behavior.)
On a recent First Thursday, my husband and I saw seven bicyclists riding on the sidewalk. Two were on State Street! It’s bad enough that State Street has become the State Street Bicycle Speedway, rather than the Pedestrian Mall it was advertised to become. Bicyclists going even 5 miles per hour (and most go much faster) versus pedestrians traveling 1-2 miles per hour don’t belong on the same pathways. It’s dangerous.
Not a day goes by that I don’t see human peddled and electric bicycles on the sidewalks in downtown. A month ago I was driving along De la Guerra Street toward downtown, when a young, helmetless young man raced past me on the sidewalk to my left. He then jumped the curb at Santa Barbara Street, swerved onto the street against traffic and raced toward State Street. That’s only one incident out of scores I encounter whenever I attempt to go downtown, which I do with decreasing frequency!
Bicycles with motors are motorcycles, regardless of the power source. Treat them as such, please, and require driving licenses and apply rules of the road and enforce those rules.