Coalition Wages an Uphill Battle to Put City on Cycling Map

With a heavenly climate and hilly topography, San Diego figures to rank as one of the top North American cities for bicycling--maybe even No. 1.

Fat chance.

In a recent poll conducted by Bicycling magazine, “America’s Finest City” couldn’t even crack the top 10. No. 1 went to Seattle, with one of the highest annual rainfalls in the country.

What gives?

A newly formed group--the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition--says nature alone won’t make a city a Cycling Nirvana. They say more and safer bikeways are needed, that biking organizations must be louder and more aggressive in acting as watchdogs for ever-increasing funds for cycling.

So, last January, more than 50 local cyclists got together for the sake of unity and political clout. They now meet on the first Thursday of every month and charge annual dues of $5 for individuals, $50 for club and corporate members.

Already, the group has had an impact.

The California Department of Transportation is considering a proposal by the coalition to add a bikeway to the leg of California 52 being built between Interstate 15 and Santos Road in Tierrasanta. The Tierrasanta Town Council has given approval to a bikeway that residents had bitterly opposed--they wanted their cars parked there. Coalition members say that merely by organizing, they’re able to get done what more than a dozen splinter groups couldn’t accomplish in the past.

Even so, why no ranking from the bicycling bible? Is San Diego that bad a town for biking?

“Uh, I’ve been asked by the mayor to look into that,” said Michael Jackson, bicycle coordinator for the city of San Diego.

Missoula, Mont., and Palo Alto did what San Diego couldn’t--cracked the top 10. But not even those towns have bicycle coordinators. Jackson’s position is one of a kind in California and one of a handful in the country.

The position was founded eight years ago. During his three-year tenure, Jackson’s focus has been on more and better bikeways and a tighter, more effective bond between biking and transit.

Funding Has Grown

Funding for cycling has grown in recent years, mainly as a low-cost option to automotive travel. The San Diego Assn. of Governments (Sandag) gets $2 million a year from the state gasoline tax for “non-motorized transportation,” referring mainly to bicycles. Jackson said a fraction of the state sales tax goes for cycling, as does 2% of all county transportation funds each year. He said that 1.5% of all county commuters now get to work by two wheels instead of four--and do so without gasoline.

Jackson said San Diego “has the potential” to be the best cycling city “in the world”--but isn’t there yet. Hardly seeing the coalition as an adversary, he welcomes it as “a great idea. They can serve a similar role for bike advocates that AAA (the American Automobile Assn.) does for motorists.”

Jackson’s checklist of improvements include lockers for safer bike storage, shower facilities at work sites to make commuting by bicycle more desirable and, where possible, wider, more elaborately marked roadways.

Ed Reilly has been a serious cyclist for 10 years. A 31-year-old UC San Diego graduate student in philosophy and a part-time teacher of philosophy at the University of San Diego, neither he nor his wife owned a car until 1986. (His wife, Laura Failla, is a social worker and chairwoman of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition.)

Reilly used to commute from Bay Park to UCSD, but found parking a hassle, even on a bike-tolerant campus. Roadways, parking, showers, lockers . . . he sees all as “pressing issues,” but says that despite the magazine’s low ranking and the city’s obvious needs, San Diego is “almost” a biker’s paradise.

Education Stressed

He hopes the coalition can continue to unite cycling interests, something desperately needed in the past. He’s all for cycling as a commuter’s alternative, but says education ought to be a front-wheel priority. He’s also concerned about safety, and the selling of cycling as a pleasure--nothing more.

“When I commuted by bike, I enjoyed the stress relief of getting out and riding,” he said. “It was always nice at the end of the day to take a ride home--much better than hopping in a car and fighting traffic. Take the car, and you walk in in need of a beer. With biking, you leave a lot of tension behind, not to mention the exercise.”

Kevin Mallory, 34, is a founding member of the coalition and, at the moment, its secretary. His push is for better cooperation between cyclists and mass transit.

He pointed out that in “non-peak” hours, cyclists can board the San Diego Trolley with bike in tow. The coalition is lobbying the Metropolitan Transit Development Board for high-security racks at trolley stops, and, who knows, Mallory said, maybe that could lead to lockers, and even showers.

Mallory said that 186,000 people a day ride bicycles in San Diego County, according to a 1983 Sandag study. With that many folks pedaling, Mallory said, education is a big issue. He said that half of all serious accidents are caused by the bikes themselves--hitting a pothole, having a wheel come off and so on. Most of the rest, he said, occur at intersections--head-ons by a car turning left or right. Getting smacked from behind--the cyclist’s greatest fear--is, he said, not a high-percentage accident. Death, however, is often its result.

“Within the coalition, we don’t want to be confrontational,” he said. “We don’t want to be partisan. When money’s being spent on cycling, we just want to say, ‘Here’s our input.’ We want to make a difference in the best way possible.”