SANDAG to write regional bike plan

By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer
Trail connections, green trend could deliver cycling 'renaissance,' advocate says | Thursday, October 4, 2007 10:41 PM PDT ∞

Planners have been working for years to deliver a seamless, countywide freeway and public transportation system. Now they are setting their sights on designing a seamless network of bicycle trails.

Stephan Vance, senior regional planner for the San Diego Association of Governments, said in a telephone interview Thursday that by this time next year, planners hope to roll out a regional bikeway plan similar to the transportation plans the agency adopts every four years.

The latest edition of the transportation plan, a blueprint for highways and transit, is scheduled to be adopted next month.

"Many cities have their own bike plans, but we have never done a stand-alone regional plan," Vance said.

The goal is to tie together the various bicycle trails and lanes San Diego County's 18 cities and its county government have developed, he said, and propose new routes that connect the major activity centers, such as shopping, entertainment and employment.

"We're trying to provide more transportation choices for people," Vance said. "We're trying to raise the profile of bicycling as a form of transportation in the region."

Oceanside cycling advocate Bob Kiger, who introduced a downhill bike ride for Hawaii tourists a number of years ago, welcomed the planning shift to bicycles.

"We do have a long ways to go, but we certainly have the right geography and climate to be a leader in the field," Kiger said.

The timing is good, he added, given the growing desire for a more eco-friendly lifestyle that slashes the carbon emissions scientists say are contributing to global warming.

"I believe that we are going to see a real renaissance of bicycling here in our area," Kiger said.

Currently, San Diego County has 77 miles of bicycle paths or trails and 780 miles of bike lanes on streets, according to the association. In addition, cyclists are permitted to ride on 39 miles of freeway shoulders.

Work on the regional bikeway plan will get under way early next year, Vance said. The association plans to hire a consultant to develop a plan with a $160,000 state grant.

Vance said the plan will be built on the backbone of corridors that already have been proposed, such as the Coastal Rail Trail along the Coaster tracks between Oceanside and San Diego. The Inland Rail Trail is to follow the Sprinter line from Oceanside to Escondido.

Today, Vance is scheduled to deliver an update for those trails, as well as the Bayshore Bikeway, to the association's transportation committee, in sort of a kickoff to discussing the proposed regional plan.

Sections of the Coastal Rail Trail are complete in Carlsbad and Solana Beach, and Oceanside is preparing to build a section there. Up in the air is the part in Encinitas, where residents sharply oppose a fence that would be installed next to the trail ---- and block residents' access to the beach.

San Marcos and Vista, meanwhile, are designing and laying plans to build sections of the Inland Rail Trail.

The committee is scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. today at 401 B St., on the seventh floor, in downtown San Diego.

While much of the regional plan discussion will center on the best places to put trails, the committee will also talk about financing, Vance said.

Money always has been a problem because it trickles in at a tiny fraction of the rate that funds come in for roads, he said.

For example, a key source of funding for the bike trails is the TransNet half-penny-on-the-dollar sales tax. Bike facilities have received $1 million every year from TransNet since its inception in 1988. But because the amount of funding has not increased, the value of that contribution to bike paths has eroded substantially, Vance said.

That will change next summer, as money begins to flow from the second edition of TransNet ---- the 40-year tax extension voters approved in 2004. The second measure allocated a percentage ---- 2 percent ---- instead of a dollar amount. The tax is expected to generate $5.8 million in the first 12 months.

Kathy Keehan of Rancho Bernardo, the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition's executive director, said projections are that the region will get $560 million ---- about half of that from TransNet ---- to spend on bicycle facilities over the next four decades.

Still, said Keehan, "there is only so much money to go around."

Keehan also said a regional bikeway plan will help the region's leaders spend limited funds on the most needed projects.

"Clearly there isn't enough money to everything we want to do," she said. "There never is."

Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, Ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.

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