Radar tracks controversial State Street bike speeds in downtown Santa Barbara as city looks at solutions

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - High speed bikes and pedestrians feeling the risks in the State Street promenade have been one of the top concerns in the city in the last four years.

It is a dual-track issue. The explosion of electric bikes has been taking place, and the closure of the promenade to cars (for the most part) in downtown has created an attractive route for bikes, especially those going downhill.

The city has periodic reports on the State St. operations to keep the city council up to speed on the issues, including speeding bikes. The majority of the concerns are over electric bikes.

The latest report which will be presented Tuesday, includes information about changing the look of some blocks, eliminating or trimming back parklets and looking at ways to slow down bikes.

A radar has been used to test the speed of bikes in two separate blocks between roughly noon an 3 p.m. in early March.

The areas clocked were the 500 block between Haley St. and Cota St. and the 900 block between Carrillo St. and Canon Perdido St.

The average speed was between 11 mph and 14 mph. The highest speed recorded was 23 mph.

The city says, the 500 and 900 blocks were selected for data collection to observe the differences in cyclist speeds between a block with a narrower roadway and more “side friction” from Outdoor Business Facilities (OBFs) with a block that is very open and has no outdoor business facilities or side friction. The results shows narrower roadways with more side friction encourage slower, more orderly cyclist traffic.

Over the last few years, many pedestrians in downtown have said they have concerns about the higher-speed bikes and some said openly, it was such a risk, they no longer felt safe downtown.

This comes at a time when the business community is in a soft period and concerned about the summer season ahead.

(More details, photos and video will be posted here later today.)