Edhat Staff
By the edhat staff
In a bid to enhance the accessibility of Santa Barbara’s State Street Promenade in the downtown area, the city council discussed a variety of options during Tuesday’s meeting.
Pedestrians and cyclists alike have voiced concerns over safety and access to the sections of State Street that are closed to vehicles.
The council voted 7-0 to approve designated bicycle lanes from Victoria to Haley Streets at an approximate cost of $80,000 total.
Speed limits, signage, and other regulations for cyclists were discussed, but nothing was decided on that front.
The council also voted 7-0 to create a shuttle service for the area. While the concept was agreed upon, details will be discussed later after presentations from city staff.
It’s undecided whether vehicle drop offs will be allowed in front of the Granada Theatre.
Specific timelines for implementation have not been announced.
Pedestrians, bikes, scooters, skateboards are incompatible. City Council majority wants State Street to die as a retail center, and theater- cultural destination. Sad. Three blocks is big enough for a pedestrian promenade with no wheels allowed. Signage in Chapal and Anacapa streets is needed listing all businesses in each block
Now, if we could just get some serious greenery instead of those tragic-looking wandering jew plants in the jardinieres, (see ANY other upscale promenade landscaping jardinieres in CA) it would start to look like we actually planned that esplanade.
It is a public walk, used to be street, also for vehicles (and bicycles ARE vehicles, with bicyclists having the same rights and responsibilities as motorists, according to the Calif. DMV.) it is not to be a Bois de Boulogne, with gentle folk promenading…unfortunately.
Good luck getting compliance in the “pedestrian only” blocks from the roudy ebike gangsters.
good luck keeping people like you out of the bike safety lanes is more like it….
funny. many of you overlook the fact that people that live and work down here, specifically down on State, commute on bikes. Daily. This all sounds great, but the main problem is from a bike riders point of view is simple. keep pedestrians out of the bike lane, then you as a bike rider have no reason to leave the lane. that’s why *I* end up having to leave a bike safety lane, every time, because some over self entitled pedestrian wants to walk on it. you have many other places to walk on, a bike safety lane is for….bikes.
Fact, state of california skateboarders are considered pedestrians.
Another fact, there are no ebike gangs. stop fear mongering and creating more drama. it’s kids on bikes. same thing as when you were a kid.
all of you crying about ebikes probably rode a skateboard or bike as a kid and got yelled at by some grumpy boomer, right? This is no different. Leave the kids alone. If they get out of line or break a law, then thats another matter and should be dealt with by the authorities, but some of you are grouping everyone together. That’s not cool. So a handful of kids cause a problem then you label everyone on a bike as a problem? Lets look all over town where the problem is. I can’t find ONE bike path that doesn’t have some stupid stroller or group of moms walking on it. You have a side walk. We have a bike safety lane. There should be an enforced separation there. A mixed use path is ridiculous and causes nothing but problems.
The funny thing about skateboarders, is that they aren’t allowed in the bike lane or on any street and they aren’t allowed on most of the sidewalks either. I googled once. Crazy.