ENCINITAS — Summarizing her thoughts on calls to roll back newly-installed safety features along a half-mile stretch of Santa Fe Drive, state Sen. Catherine Blakespear led chants of “improve, don’t remove” at a press conference on Saturday morning at the Nardo Road intersection.
Blakespear, a former Encinitas mayor, hosted the Aug. 23 event with other local leaders, urging the City Council to reject any proposal for wholesale changes to the roadway improvements, which have garnered mixed reviews and even dissatisfaction among some residents since their partial completion last December.
“The city should focus on real problems and prioritize the other things that are happening in the city that are very important, not removing a recently installed road safety project outside of a high school,” Blakespear said, adding that tearing up Santa Fe Drive would be “totally misguided” and a “tremendous waste of general fund money.”
Blakespear, who helped secure $3 million in state funds to help pay for a majority of the western phase of the Santa Fe Drive Improvements Project, argued an overhaul of the project could impact other important city projects, such as rebuilding Fire Station 1 and hiring more sheriff’s deputies.
The Santa Fe Corridor Improvements Project, funded through a combination of local, state, and federal sources, is designed to enhance mobility and safety along the stretch from Interstate 5 to El Camino Real. The project’s $4.15 million western segment, from I-5 to Evergreen Drive, was completed in April and included separated bike lanes, updated striping, landscaping and other infrastructure upgrades, according to city documents.
In December 2024, the Encinitas City Council voted unanimously to delay the remainder of the western phase for six months, pending review, after residents raised concerns about planter boxes, back-in parking, and narrow roadways.
A third-party review later identified issues and recommended redesigns, prompting the city to terminate the construction contract for the eastern phase between El Camino Real and Evergreen Drive in early 2025.
By May, the project was placed on hold pending further direction from the council.
Ongoing issues
Councilmember Jim O’Hara, who attended the event, said he spoke at length with Blakespear on Friday about the road design and proposed changes. While both agreed on the need to keep roads safe and speeds low near San Dieguito Academy, O’Hara said, “our methodology on the design is very different.”
O’Hara told The Coast News that he favors buffer space to give both emergency vehicles and cyclists room to maneuver around obstacles. For example, a cyclist riding between curbs in the new system has no place to bail out in an emergency.
Another issue is that visitors using back-in parking on the south side of the road must unload trunks while standing on drainage rocks and then cross the bike lane to reach the curb.
O’Hara also hopes to standardize signage and rules for cyclists, saying greater consistency from block to block would keep riders from feeling like they are “taking a quiz at every intersection.”
‘Safety is not an inconvenience’
Safety along the often cramped and busy thoroughfare has been a longstanding issue, with the push for upgrades reignited following the death of Brodee Champlain-Kingman, a 15-year-old San Dieguito Academy student who was fatally struck by a vehicle while riding his e-bike near the school in June 2023.
Brodee’s father, Troy Kingman, spoke in support of maintaining the newly-installed safety features along Santa Fe Drive.
“No matter how much pushback we get, slowing down and safety [are] not an inconvenience,” Kingman said.
Emily Andrade, a trustee on the Encinitas Union School District board, said traffic during school pickup and drop-off times can be “dangerous and crazy,” making safe routes a daily concern.
“The barrier protected bike lanes and pedestrian paths that have been created on Santa Fe Drive are definitely helping with student safety,” Andrade said. “They offer a much safer option for our students.”
Michelle Horsley, president of the San Dieguito Faculty Association, agreed with Andrade’s assessment.
“I have seen the positive impacts that these changes have created,” Horsley said.
Deputy Mayor Joy Lyndes introduced a resolution for the upcoming City Council meeting to support traffic calming measures, adding she would like to see similar installations all the way to El Camino Real.
“We must continue to represent all of our community – no matter what they choose to use to get around our city,” she said. “No matter what they choose to ride on or to drive, they all need to be provided with safe infrastructure and safe ways to get around the city.”
1 comment
This project is a “poster child” for the “badvocates,” those who reject the time-honored safety benefits of lawful vehicular bicycling. Most separation facilities, including almost all pushed by Blakespear in Encinitas, create unnecessary hazards for cyclists, while providing the “warm and fuzzy” appearance of safety enhancement. Well-documented injuries and fatalities have been caused not only by direct curb and/or bollard strikes, but also by right-hook, left-cross, and side-entry collisions with motor vehicles at every street intersection or driveway cut. They eliminate emergency pull-over spaces for motorists and first responders, while locking cyclists into narrow channels, set up on the right (wrong) side of every right turn opportunity on the main road.