Attention, city planners and civic leaders: “bike boulevards” are a low-cost, easy-to-implement way to make it easy for people to bike to nearby locations rather than have to drive everywhere. This post (and the following one) from the sdbikecommuter.com board illustrate how Berkeley was able to create them gracefully and effectively.

A network of bike boulevards could happen with neglible inconvenience to automotive drivers, as, counterintuitively, automotive traffic tends to have higher throughput when it flows predictably through a limited set of routes, rather than scattered throughout the grid (even if the limited routes have lower peak speeds).

And everyone would benefit from the opportunity to easily ride their bike for errands under, say, three miles, whereas now a lot of folks are deterred by the lack of passageways which are relatively protected from high-speed traffic. An example of the lack of safe passageways: the so-called “bike route” on Utah St north of El Cajon (aka “The Bike Lane of Death”) which forces the bicylists to cross high-speed, uncontrolled cross-traffic at multiple intersections.

Yes, bike boulevards would significantly reduce our community’s carbon footprint, but more importantly, they would significantly increase our fun. I don’t know a single person who has to drive who wouldn’t like to spend a little more time outdoors and out in the neighborhood. Leaders of San Diego, how about we invest this little bit of money and improve everyone’s quality of life?