A “bicycle boulevard” on King Street took one step closer to becoming reality at Monday’s Santa Cruz City Council budget hearing. But before anyone hops on a Huffy and coasts down the center lane, they should know that it could still be up to four years before bikes rule the Westside road.
A “bicycle boulevard” on King Street took one step closer to becoming reality at Monday’s Santa Cruz City Council budget hearing. But before anyone hops on a Huffy and coasts down the center lane, they should know that it could still be up to four years before bikes rule the Westside road.
If completed, the 7,000-foot-long King Street, which runs one block north of and parallel to Mission Street, would be all but cordoned off from car traffic. Cars would still be able to enter the street, but diverters and roundabouts would make it a less than convenient thoroughfare, leaving bikes and pedestrians firmly in charge. But with town coffers echoingly empty, and a price tag of up to $200,000, the best that city leaders could promise after voting 5-2 in favor of early support for the project was to direct the public works department to “begin investigating options next year.”
“The idea is to make a safe route so people have less reason to bike on Mission Street,” says Santa Cruz Councilmember Mike Rotkin, a longtime supporter of the project. “It’s good that we at last have it in the process now. It’s moving along. The problem is we just have no staff time to work on it right now. It’s bad timing.”
The suggestion to turn the road into a bicycle concourse first surfaced about two years ago, but after two cyclists were killed on Mission Street by autos within 18 months of each other, the idea gained widespread attention. Other options like eliminating parking on King Street and adding bike lanes have been floated, but the bicycle boulevard, despite its three- to four-year timeline, has been championed by the cycling community.
Micah Posner, director of cycling advocacy group People Power, has been the principal voice behind the plan. He says he’s thrilled that the council is behind the idea, and while he’d like to have it done as soon as possible, he “understands the financial situation the city is in.” Posner also says creating a bicycle boulevard would not only be an “important facility for bicyclists” but would constitute a “radical change in how people view their streets.”
“We’d like King Street to be restored to being a street that’s primarily used for neighbors, residents, cyclists and kids going to school,” says Posner. “King Street has been turned into a alternative for cars to Mission Street, and we don’t think that’s fair. We’re saying that neighborhood streets should be given back to the people. Despite 50 years of using streets as just a way to get as many cars though them as possible, there are times when you should have a different priority for a street.”
