SAN DIEGO — Caltrans says it will spend $1 billion over the next four years installing bike and pedestrian lanes across California and in San Diego.
One of the projects is finishing up in Carmel Valley where Caltrans is extending a bike path under Interstate 5.
Riders along the bike lane between State Route 56 and Interstate 5 have been dealing with detours lately, and currently, they have to share Carmel Valley Rd with vehicles.
“It’s tight and it's dark. It's under the freeway. It scares me to death. I walk my bike through there all the time,” said one bicyclist in the area.
When the work is complete, the tunnel under Interstate 5 will connect the two bike paths and allow bicyclists to avoid traffic.
The project is part of a $1 billion bike path and pedestrian lane investment launched this month across the state.
“We are going to connect under the under the I-5 bridge through the Penasquitos Lagoon,” said Seth Cutter, a Caltrans Senior Planner in San Diego.
Sutter said the purpose of bike lanes is to get people out of their cars.
“We know that we have a climate crisis going on and we're trying to combat that. And by taking people out of their cars, and hopefully putting them on bikes, and getting them to walk, and getting them on personal mobility devices; hopefully, that will move the needle and help us get closer to where we want to go with our climate action goals,” he said.
But moving the needle has been the hard part.
Sutter said, currently in San Diego County, about one percent of people commute on bicycles, about two percent ride the trolley, and approximately five percent take the bus.
“We’re not seeing the results quite yet. We started the investment in the last few years. We've been investing more and we've built more and more bike paths,” Sutter said.
California’s billion-dollar bike lanes will take four years to build, according to Caltrans. But some, like the bike path connector under Interstate 5, are close to being finished. Caltrans said it plans to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony in May for the grand opening of the bike tunnel in Carmel Valley.
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