PeopleForBikes published its annual City Ratings, and Encinitas did not score very well, which is a huge disappointment, considering what a great city Encinitas is.
What Are the PeopleForBikes City Ratings?
PeopleForBikes is a national nonprofit and bicycle-industry coalition dedicated to making riding a bike safer, easier, and more accessible for people of all ages and abilities.
One of its most influential programs is the City Ratings system, which evaluates how effectively a community’s bicycle network connects people to everyday destinations using low-stress routes. Rather than simply counting miles of bike lanes, the ratings focus on whether residents can comfortably reach jobs, schools, shopping, parks, services, and transit by bicycle.
PeopleForBikes’ City Ratings measure the quality of a city’s bike network in more than 3000 U.S. cities. A bike network is a connected system of protected bike lanes, off-street paths, slow shared streets, and safe crossings that enables people to comfortably bike around a city.
Each city receives a City Ratings score on a scale of 0 to 100. A low score (0-20) indicates a weak bike network, meaning the city lacks safe bikeways or there are gaps in the network. A high score (80-100) indicates that the most common destinations are accessible via safe, comfortable bike routes serving people of all ages and abilities.
The purpose of assigning these ratings is to ask one single question:
Can an average person comfortably and safely reach the places they need to go by bike?
How did Encinitas rate?
Sadly, out of 3,019 cities rated, Encinitas ranked 2,057, placing it in the bottom 32nd percentile. In California, where over 300 cities were ranked, Encinitas ranked in the bottom 5-10%. That’s embarrassing for Encinitas, a city that is a hub of wellness, fitness, and health.
For reference, here is how other California cities were rated. This list represents cities with varying demographics, sizes, geographies, and wealth levels.
So, why is this an issue?
The City Rating of 26 indicates that Encinitas can’t address the question asked above: Can an average person comfortably and safely reach the places they need to go by bike?
The speed of our streets, the lack of infrastructure, and the gaps in the network are among the primary reasons Encinitas received a low rating. In addition, we have documented injuries and deaths attributed to roads prioritized for vehicles—and these ratings don’t even account for those issues.
What can we do to fix it?
Lower speed limits all over town
Residential streets (streets with driveways to homes where kids play) should be lowered to 20mph. It’s been done on many streets — make it mandatory on all streets.
Add infrastructure that controls motorist speeds
One tool the city can use is speed cushions. These are speed humps that slow down regular-sized cars and trucks, but they feature gaps that allow emergency vehicles to pass through without slowing down, thereby avoiding negative impacts on response times.
We can also narrow the roadways. Studies show that drivers drive more slowly on narrower roads. This can be done with parked cars, paint, or even with planters—There are lots of options.
Prioritize roadway infrastructure that creates safer conditions for cyclists
Primarily, by separating cyclists from motorists. Councilmember Shaffer has stated on multiple occasions that motorists and cyclists need to be separated—and he is correct! Studies from veteran traffic engineers, insurance institutes, and federal transportation agencies support the idea that physical separation between motor vehicles and bicyclists increases safety.
As we all know, we are going to see an increase in housing across Encinitas in the upcoming years. This population increase will result in more people moving around our city. We can move to prioritize motor vehicle traffic, but our space is limited, and this will only result in greater congestion around town.
Or, we can continue to develop other ways for residents and visitors to move around town. Developing better infrastructure for cycling and walking will enable and encourage people to use modes of transportation other than cars.
And each person who chooses to ride, scoot, or roll around Encinitas will reduce the number of motorized vehicles clogging our streets.
