SAN DIEGO — The City of San Diego is responding to concerns from people in the Jamacha neighborhood over new bike lanes that neighbors say are dangerous and have taken away their parking.
CBS 8 first covered this story last weekend. CBS 8's Rocio De La Fe went back out there Thursday to hear how neighbors are responding to the city.
Sarahy Garcia and Isabel Rodriguez both live on Lisbon Street and are growing frustrated over the new bike lanes.
“For me as a mom, its dangerous, as the majority of our neighbors - we’re parents. We have kids so to unload… if parking outside, just yesterday you open the door to your car and we almost get hit," said Rodriguez.
The new lanes on Lisbon Street were redesigned by the city with Class IV separated bikeways last Friday.
Both neighbors say the new parking spots are so close to the street that at least two more cars have been sideswiped this week alone.
“Yesterday they hit my neighbors car," said Rodriguez.
Sarahy’s car was totaled last weekend after a suspected drunk driver crashed into her car.
“This is going to continue happening," said Garcia.
Garcia is now left without a way to get by. “I have school, I have an internship and I have a job and I don’t have anywhere to go. This is not okay. It would’ve been great if we would’ve had the city maybe let us talk about it give our opinion and let us go from there," said Garcia told CBS 8 last Saturday. “I believe that I am in [an] unprivileged area and the city doesn’t care about us, I do," she added.
Neighbors say they question the purpose of the bike lanes because they never see anyone ride through this area.
After reaching out to the City of San Diego, CBS 8 was told:
“These improvements were made based on rider demand data and in an effort from the City of San Diego to create a safer, connected Citywide system of separated lanes for people on bikes and micro-mobility riders. Class IV bike lanes that are separated from vehicular traffic by off-curb parking have been successfully in use throughout the City for years within communities such as Downtown, North Park and City Heights. These lanes create safer conditions both for people on bicycles and those in vehicles.
Leading up to the recent redesigning of Lisbon Street, the City of San Diego’s Transportation Department provided notifications describing the project and the scope of work to Council District 4 in August 2022, the information was also shared with the Skyline-Paradise Hills Community Planning Group (SPH-CPC) in September of 2022 and City staff participated in an October 11, 2022, SPH-CPC public meeting where staff spoke and explained the project. This segment of Lisbon Street is near a school and a neighborhood park, and the need for added safety protection from vehicle traffic in the bike lane is why the Class IV separated bikeway was used.
Currently there are signs on Lisbon Street alerting drivers, cyclists and pedestrians to the newly updated traffic patterns as well as resources online where travelers can view a cross-section diagram of the Class IV treatment as well as view a handy video tutorial on how to navigate them."
Both women say they feel the city is prioritizing bicyclists over homeowners.
“We’re not against it, we’re not at all, what we want is our parking spots back," said Rodriguez.
“We are not against the bike lanes at all, it’s just the fact there’s no parking for us," added Garcia.
Isabel says because of the limited space she now has to find parking blocks away from her home.
"Everybody has more than one car. We have to travel, we have to go those ones or all the way across the street from the park. I have three kids I had to walk with my three little ones they are all under five it was horrible," added Rodriguez.
Rodriguez says the city also failed to consider people with mobility issues, "my father-in-law he’s handicapped so you know it would’ve been awesome if at least they took that into consideration because, he can't park down there."
Both are worried the situation will only get worse once school starts next week.
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