City of San Diego Adopts Downtown Mobility Plan

Thanks to the advocacy efforts of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition and its sustainability partners including Bike SD, Circulate San Diego and Climate Action Campaign, the San Diego City Council voted unanimously to adopt the Downtown San Diego Mobility Plan! A game-changing plan for safer bicycling in San Diego, it includes nearly 9 miles of what could be the region’s first protected bikeways—all in the city’s downtown core. The Mobility Plan also includes improved and wider sidewalks for pedestrians and urban greenways.

Throughout the nearly two year outreach process, the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition was there to support the plan and garner public support. In advance of the final City Council vote, SDCBC also held a Ride and Rally along many of the proposed streets in the plan.

“We’re very excited to get this win for all who live, work or visit downtown and want safer places to ride,” said Andy Hanshaw, Executive Director of SDCBC. “This is a forward thinking, smart growth approach for a downtown area that expects to nearly triple their residential population to 90,000 and double the employment population to 168,000 in the next 20 years. We know that when the network of protected bike lanes is installed, mode share will rise significantly for bicycle commuting and it will support the goals of the city’s recently adopted Climate Action Plan (calling for 6% bike mode share by 2020 and 18% by 2035).”

The bike lanes called for in the plan now move toward Implementation; the City of San Diego has committed to a 2-3 year time frame for completion of the bike network.