Confusion and chaos are how some people are describing driving and parking in Little Italy on Thursday after crews began adding new bike lanes downtown.
“A mess -- nobody knows what’s going on,” said resident Corry Candland.
The bike lanes located on Beech Street have a row of cars parked next to the curb, and next to those cars is what looks like a bike lane, and next to that is another row of parked cars.
“I think it’s a new bike route. I mean, there is a little bicycle emblem down on the ground,” said Candland. “But there’s cars parked in it.”
City officials announced the first of three plans to improve lanes for cyclists and scooter riders in downtown last year, according to Jose Ysea, a spokesperson for the City of San Diego.
Known as the Downtown Mobility Plan, it called for 9.3 miles of two-way tracks on major roadways for bike and scooter riders.
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“It’s really confusing because a lot of people used to park on the bike lane, but now they’re not supposed to park on the bike lane,” said Candland.
Ysea said crews should be done next week with this stretch of the Downtown Mobility Plan.
“It’s going to be much better defined. We’re going to have some bollards up that are going to separate the two areas,” Ysea said. “This area where we are right now is going to be a two-way bike lane.”
That two-way bike lane will be where the cars are parked next to the curb, which will be painted red, and a few parking spots will be pushed towards the middle of the street.
“And it touches on, of course, the climate action plan: Getting people out of vehicles and onto bicycles,” said Ysea.
This project is the first phase of the plan that will add bike lanes to Beech St. from Pacific Highway to Sixth Avenue.
