De La Vina Street between Constance Avenue and Mission Street was recently resurfaced and repainted from its former two-lane configuration to one lane plus a dedicated bicycle lane.
Thanks go to the News-Press for publishing pictures showing changes to the city of Santa Barbara streets showing 1) “then” State St. when it was an efficient traffic handler and 2) “now” State St., with the Oct. 8 changes removing 50% capacity of De la Vina Street from Constance to Mission.
The further narrowing of De la Vina is part of the Bicycle Master Plan, according to the city of Santa Barbara. The Historic Landmarks disapproved strongly of the Sola Street bike path and the planned for narrowing of State from Constance to La Cumbre for more bike lanes. The city continues to ignore laws of planning.
The response was overwhelmingly NO to losing a lane on de La Vina Street by nearby residents and businesses.
The majority stated De la Vina was heavily used by autos and the lost capacity will make things terrible.
CAB has called this the “Ripple Effect.”
Drivers will use alternative routes putting more pressure on the downtown transportation grid. Like a stone in a pond the waves of congestion build. As the economy recovers, the closing of State Street is becoming unfortunately clear.
The Santa Barbara City Council and mayor are fixed on taking 50% of De la Vina and Chapala capacity in spite of the fact that narrowing the street negatively impacts residents. Their excuse? To make things better.
The supporters of this planning have yet to explain the long-term failure of this type of planning going back to the late 1980s. Each move to destroy the transportation grid has hurt the long term economy of the city center.
“Alternatives” — bicycling, walking and buses all have seen a decline. The early 1980s was the peak of bicycling, “before” there was a single bike path. Since then the bicycling count has continued to spiral down.
Transportation planners for the city state they are putting in place the “Bicycle Master Plan.” Did you know that as a “plan,” the city has violated the California Environmental Quality Act?
CEQA demands such a large plan to have an EIR. Arrogantly the entire council and staff continue their law breaking.
Do you know the projections to make this type of planning work “require” a 100% increase of population? That means a minimum of 10,000 new residents in the core of Old Town and 200,000 total population. It will forever change both the look and feel of this jewel of the coast.
We look forward to more pictures showing destroyed streets in the city.
Scott Wenz
President of Cars Are Basic
