Quick Take
Stephen Svete and Amelia Conlen, board members of Bike Santa Cruz County, support making West Cliff Drive a one-way roadway while expanding right-of-way infrastructure for pedestrians and bikers. They were disappointed on April 9 when the Santa Cruz City Council did not move forward with city staff’s two-year pilot grant application recommendation, but are heartened that the overall vision was approved. Their nonprofit organization will continue to advocate for less vehicle traffic along the iconic coastal corridor.
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After months of community planning by the Santa Cruz City Council, the 50-year vision for West Cliff Drive reached its political conclusion in early April – sort of. The city staff boldly (and smartly) launched the vision project in the wake of intense winter storms of 2023 that left eroded bluffs and destroyed sections of pathway, roadway and bridges. The idea was to proactively design a plan for West Cliff Drive that addressed current conflict issues and future expected climate-related damage.
But, the process ended with a whimper, as its main redesign solution – to make West Cliff a one-way street – got stopped in its tracks by intense community opposition.
As board members representing Bike Santa Cruz County (BSCC), we worked throughout the process to build support for the vision’s recommendation for both a one-way road for cars and an expanded and separated pedestrian and bicycle path. To test this concept, city staff had recommended seeking a Caltrans Active Transportation Program grant to fund a two-year pilot study. But councilmembers rejected the pilot program, which leaves the next steps for the vision in question.
BSCC has advocated for safer streets and expanded active transportation since 1991. We have witnessed the growth of bicycling throughout our community as a viable and healthy travel mode. Just like in cities and regions around the globe, we note that bike-friendly infrastructure yields multiple benefits: safer streets, lower carbon emissions and healthier, happier citizens.
We still believe that a redesigned West Cliff Drive with a two-way dedicated bikeway, a one-way vehicle lane, and a dedicated pedestrian pathway, as supported by 61% of the citywide user survey conducted during the visioning process, is the best option for a future redesign. People walking and using wheelchairs and strollers would have a consistent 10-foot wide, repaved trail, and not have to share with cyclists moving at much greater speeds. Cyclists would use a dedicated two-way lane, much like the Beach Street facility, and not have to share with vehicles. This mode separation would enhance safety for everyone. Vehicles would use a calmed, unidirectional lane, which would slow speeds and provide safer access to the path for pedestrians.
The good news is the approved vision still incorporates some of these features. It prioritizes taming vehicle traffic and designating portions of the roadway for the majority of its users, who are pedestrians and cyclists. And despite our disagreement with the city council’s decision to reject the pilot grant application, we understand it as a politically judicious move.
There was no question, based on the extensive testimony received by the city council, that confusion and mistrust abounded. Opponents cited temporary detours, diversions, dead-end streets and traffic-calming quick-build features that were installed in many parts of the lower Westside neighborhood. Those fixes – and the increased traffic on some streets that resulted – were a direct result of the emergency closure of the Bethany Curve bridge that will remain closed until late 2025 – or later. These details were explained at a number of the vision meetings, but perhaps these details were unrecalled by opponents come decision time.
Some might also have misunderstood that the one-way pilot would have been implemented only after the entirety of West Cliff Drive was repaired and the Bethany Curve bridge was reopened, which would have given drivers a chance to continue on to Natural Bridges State Beach and return to town on Delaware Avenue or Mission Street.
The city council both acknowledged and responded to the confusion. Councilmembers asked for more outreach to study how a one-way concept would affect the adjacent neighborhoods. And while a two-year pilot would have been the best way to collect data on changes in vehicular travel patterns, the intensity of the opposition effectively removed the pilot as a means for doing so for now.
Nevertheless, the council did approve the vision. To have rejected it after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in consultant fees and hours of staff and citizen time to get a draft on paper would have really muddied the waters.
Bike Santa Cruz County will continue working with the city and the community in support of the vision for West Cliff Drive. We also are committed to advocate for traffic calming and street beautification in all affected neighborhoods. These plans should certainly involve more outreach to affected residents. Through working with neighbors, we will help develop concepts that protect neighborhoods from intrusive vehicular traffic and create safe access for all on West Cliff Drive.
In the meantime, we have observed informally that the current truncated configuration of West Cliff Drive with its closures and detours might be resulting in a safer street than its pre-storm version. That is because there are a few sections where no vehicles are permitted. These segments are filled with people walking and biking who can move without the noise and conflict of sharing space with motor vehicles. We have also noticed that vehicles that do make their way along its drivable sections seem to be more careful – likely a result of newly installed caution signage, quick-build emergency crosswalks near Auburn Avenue (resulting from 2024 storm closure of the path) and the increased presence of cyclists in the roadway.
Bicycling, fueled by awareness of climate change, the rise of e-bikes and the expansion of the BCycle bike-share program in our region, is an increasingly popular means of transportation. Its infrastructure takes up far less precious land resources than vehicular roads and parking. It dovetails with our statewide mandates and local policies directing carbon reduction.
Our local cycling network continues to grow, and now includes the very-popular Westside section of the Coastal Rail Trail, the Arana Gulch trail, the Beach Street and San Lorenzo Trestle Bridge bikeway, and the UCSC Meadow Bikeway – all of which Bike Santa Cruz County supported.
Our vision is motivated by a future with less vehicular traffic and more walkable and bikeable streets. But we will not reduce car use without building safe facilities for people walking and biking.
Stephen Svete and Amelia Conlen serve as board members of Bike Santa Cruz County.