Quick Take
Changing the traffic pattern on West Cliff Drive doesn’t make sense, writes Glenn Seiler, who is a member of a newly formed coalition determined to preserve the iconic, scenic Santa Cruz road as a two-way street. He insists there are better options than managed retreat.
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Recently there has been a considerable amount of talk regarding one-way traffic on West Cliff Drive. Some would have you believe that replacing a lane of traffic with two lanes of bike paths will somehow save West Cliff Drive. I believe nothing could be further from the truth – and data exists to validate how negative the impact of this would be.
A nascent community organization, The West Cliff Drive Coalition (WCDC), has recently formed to preserve West Cliff Drive as it is today for the benefit of everyone. The group (of which I am a member) brings together leaders from organizations including the Santa Cruz Board Riders Club, Santa Cruz Neighbors and neighborhoods of the lower Westside, all with a common goal to preserve two-way accessibility for everyone – including those who cannot ride bikes or easily walk. The group also works to keep neighbors involved and aware of events.
The narrative you often hear is that managed retreat – meaning moving people and structure away from the coast – is the only option and we must move to one-way traffic. However, I fail to see how removing a lane of vehicles and replacing it with two lanes for cyclists does anything to stop or mitigate erosion on West Cliff Drive. One has nothing to do with the other. The same amount of road surface is being used and there has been no evidence that vehicle weight on West Cliff Drive has had any impact on erosion.
So why exactly do we need to replace vehicles with bicycles?
There are many solutions to explore that could potentially address erosion on West Cliff Drive, including natural feature restoration (NFR). Each has its own pros and cons (I’ll write about them in a later op-ed). However, one-way traffic and replacing vehicles with bicycles is immaterial to any of those solutions.
Gary Griggs, a UC Santa Cruz distinguished professor of earth and planetary sciences, offers a deeper discussion on how NFR has been used in the past to stabilize cliffs and beach structures.
The real problem is not cars, but that that space on the bluffs is compromised by west swells during storms. That has been the case since 1983, and if we had spent as much time and money trying to solve that problem as we have hiring consultants and conducting one-way surveys, maybe we would have a solution to move the swell energy away from our cliffs and still have the space to provide access for everyone.
In all the years of West Cliff Drive history there have been many studies and task forces, always ending with the decision to preserve West Cliff Drive, as is, for future generations. Two sets of traffic-monitoring data exist from these previous studies. The first, a 10-week 1997 West Cliff Task Force survey, and also a video monitoring device installed by Verizon in 2018 monitored traffic and parking issues around the surf statue for 10 weeks. (I received copies of these surveys from people involved in the original surveys; the city staff also has a copy.)
The city and residents have done more recent surveys, but I prefer the Verizon data as it has a larger bidirectional data set, is still timely and provides an unbiased objective witness from video.
The data sets provide proof of resounding vehicle usage over bike usage.
The Verizon data consistently shows that about 70-80% of usage is vehicle traffic versus bike usage at about 10%. The remainder is pedestrians. That means the city would be creating a two-way bike lane in lieu of vehicle traffic for 10% of the people accessing West Cliff Drive.
And who would pay for that? Probably the same residents who would be losing vehicle access.
A sample week of the Verizon data during May 2018 saw 2,154 bicyclists and 28,162 vehicles using West Cliff Drive. Users on bikes represented 7.5% of usage. The Verizon data set confirms West Cliff Drive as a major arterial road, with just a few percentage points’ difference between westbound and eastbound traffic at the surf statue.
When you consider the average car usually carries multiple people, then the number of people accessing West Cliff via car potentially doubles. That means about 50,000 people a week are potentially accessing West Cliff via vehicle and a little over 2,000 are on bikes. Yet, that seems to be enough to justify removing a lane of vehicles to create a two-way bike lane.
The logic of this is simply mind-blowing.
The coalition is also doing the hard work of measuring the width of the road surface in multiple locations up and down West Cliff to assess the feasibility of including additional bike lanes together with two-way vehicle traffic. The initial findings are that there is ample room for a dedicated 4-foot bike lane on the side near the bluffs apart from a few narrow spots where cars and bikes can merge and share the road as they do on Delaware Avenue, East Cliff Drive and other Santa Cruz City streets.
In addition, this would help to slow down both vehicle and bike traffic, provide safety for pedestrians and could be implemented without having to sacrifice a lane of vehicles.
Whether you are pro one-way or two-way, or really do not care, one thing we can all agree on is that West Cliff Drive is a treasure that needs to be protected and preserved. It would be great if our grandchildren could experience West Cliff Drive just as we do. That includes being able to drive up and down West Cliff to find the best view, surf spot, fishing spot or pocket beach. That has been the culture of West Cliff Drive for decade upon decade.
But now, we face losing that culture so we can have two lanes for bikes!
West Cliff Drive is not just a playground for the young and active. As our population ages and more residents are becoming less mobile, now is not the time to reduce their access to West Cliff.
I have many friends with senior or infirm family members who enjoy being driven up and down West Cliff. Being able to drive up to a bench and sit and enjoy the ocean is a highlight of their day. But this is all at risk so that cyclists can have their two-way lane that will serve less than 10% of all West Cliff users.
One final thought. Implementing one-way traffic is counter to climate initiatives.
Forcing thousands of cars a day to drive potentially miles out of the way is not good climate policy. Redirecting traffic into residential neighborhoods increases congestion and the potential for speeding, which puts children and pets in danger. I live in the potentially impacted neighborhood (on Pelton Avenue) and have experienced the chaos of one-way traffic during the temporary rerouting.
None of this is aligned with a sustainable climate action plan.
We should stop the madness now, learn from the past and focus the city’s time and money on more pressing issues like saving Lighthouse Point and the surf museum, creating a sustainable revenue stream for maintenance of West Cliff and improving the multipurpose path for pedestrian safety.
Glenn Seiler has been a Santa Cruz resident of the lower Westside for over 30 years. He is a retired technology professional and currently works as a volunteer docent naturalist for California State Parks, where he splits his time between Natural Bridges State Beach and Año Nuevo State Park. His passion is ocean kayaking, wildlife and helping others see and appreciate the natural beauty of California’s Central Coast. Prior to retiring, Glenn was vice president of Linux and open source solutions at Wind River Systems.