Santa Fe Drive improvement project gets $3M in state funds 

ENCINITAS — Buffered bike lanes, angled parking, and bus stop enhancements are all coming to Santa Fe Drive adjacent to San Dieguito Academy High School as part of a $7 million project intended to enhance bike and traffic safety.

The state allocated $3.1 million for the project within this year’s budget at the advocacy of state Sen. Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas), complementing the $4 million set aside by the city of Encinitas. 

Construction kicks off in October and will last between six and nine months, with all improvements set to be complete for the start of the 2024-25 school year. Leaders say this will benefit not only San Dieguito Academy (SDA) but also nearby schools like Ocean Knoll Elementary and Oak Crest Middle schools.

Blakespear said she was motivated to pursue this funding following the death of 15-year-old Brodee Braxton Champlain-Kingman, who was struck by a work van while riding an e-bike on June 22 on his way to San Dieguito Academy. Brodee was changing lanes when the fatal collision occurred. 

Encinitas declared a state of emergency and adopted an ordinance increasing enforcement of bike safety laws following his death. 

“Some of the really important features of it are specifically focused on making it safer for kids to bike to school,” Blakespear said, speaking at a press conference outside SDA on Thursday. “The tragedy of Brodee’s death animated me to work even harder, and I think is a remembrance and recognition of the fact that we just all need to do better when it comes to our roads.” 

The project includes two planned phases, beginning with the western phase covering improvements from Evergreen Drive to MacKinnon Avenue, including pop-outs at the intersection of Nardo Road and MacKinnon Avenue, new angled parking, a bus pullout, bus stop improvements, a right turn lane into San Dieguito Academy, street and pedestrian lighting, and a signalized pedestrian crosswalk to San Dieguito Academy.

Currently, cyclists in the bike lane are only separated from car lanes via a white line in this area. The project will add barriers to provide more protection, with parking also separating a portion of the bike lane from vehicles. 

The project will also add a signalized pedestrian crossing near SDA, as well as protected intersections — where pedestrians and cyclists are separated from cars — at Windsor Road and Bonita Drive, as well as Nardo Road and MacKinnon Avenue.

Brodee’s mother, Claire Champlain, also spoke about her son outside the school he attended before he died. She described how he was wearing a helmet and clearly signaled before turning on the day of the collision, and said that improvements like those proposed in the project could have saved his life. 

“What happened to Brodee and the loss our family is suffering could have been prevented. We should never allow this to happen again. Brodee should be here at school right now, and he’s not, and we failed him. His death could have been prevented with clearly marked bike lanes,” said Champlain. 

This project has been in the works since 2017, according to Encinitas Mayor Tony Kranz. The city was originally planning a pared-down version of this project due to a lack of funding but was able to expand its plans after receiving the $3 million state allocation. 

Going forward, Kranz said there is still more to be done to improve safety along the city’s east-to-west corridor, which will require continual state support. One goal is to establish a roundabout at Crest Drive and Santa Fe Drive, which was removed from project plans in the past due to the funding shortfall. 

“This was one of those situations where we, unfortunately, were constrained by budget,” Kranz said. “We ended up with what I thought was a good project. With the resources that the state, through Catherine, have provided, we’re now on ‘better,’ and we hope to get to ‘best,’ which would include a roundabout on the peak of the ridge here.”

The eastern portion of the project, which includes more bike lanes and traffic calming improvements, including reduced lane widths and delineators and other improvements, is expected to go to bid sometime in the winter, according to the city. 

Student bike safety

The explosion in popularity of e-bikes can be seen in the SDA parking lot, where hundreds of students pull in and park their bikes every morning. 

SDA Principal Cara Dolnik said that from the time students left campuses due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, to when they returned in April 2021, the number of those riding e-bikes grew from zero to over 100 and has only kept growing. 

Now, she estimates that around 400 students ride bikes to the campus every day, the majority being e-bikes. It has been difficult to provide the bike safety education needed to meet this growth, and requires multi-agency collaboration, she said. 

“Recent traffic concerns and the tragic loss of our student Brodee highlight the need for continued collaboration between our state, city and community partners in providing safety education and increasing the awareness of safe road travel for our bikers,” Dolnik said.

A crucial partner has been the San Diego County Bike Coalition, which has provided bike safety training for several schools. Diegueño and Earl Warren middle school students must apply for a permit to ride bikes to school, which requires them to attend a safety course via the coalition, at the school, or in some cases, through city-based programs in Encinitas or Carlsbad. 

Dolnik said it’s been more difficult to get high school students to participate in safety training, partially because the schools draw from different jurisdictions. At SDA, they are planning a parent and student bike training with the coalition for October.