Green Changes to State Street Promenade

So who exactly gave the OK to ruin the aesthetics of State Street and create a high speed bike path down the middle of crowds of wandering pedestrians? The mayor?

I agree with the local architect who said this kind of change should be design-driven and "not engineer-driven, and that there are subtle, more creative ways to manage circulation along State Street"

Can you imagine and consider how hard Santa Barbara’s community has worked to preserve, create and protect the aesthetic appeal downtown, only to be green washed with neon paint like a big rude Trump tweet.

Many of us choose to live here because its a special & beautiful place, and the city also appeared to feel this way til this horrible spillage of paint like graffiti. We did not allow the city engineers to put up many traffic signs and overwhelm with signage and center divider thru down town. Hey, we care about the street-scape throughout the city and I am sure there is a better solution. Sad one responder says "green is the bike lane standard" OMG lets change that standard.. Go to Amsterdam where bikes rule, and you will see tan and off color, as the preferred bike path colors mostly in the land of Van Gogh.

I hope City of Goleta (are you listening Charlie and James?) will see how ugly and awful this makes a street scape and avoid making this horrible mistake on Hollister thru Old Town Goleta. This is not beatification this is entropy. Which means disorder, disarrange, blot in this case.

Keep calm, and bike on, but please tell those who think this is acceptable at the City to return the green paint for a full refund. This is not a good use of tax payer funds.

Local architects have spoken against this idea. I am surprised that I agree with them. The idea that a "pedestrian" mall should now be dominated by a bike lane is absurd. This is the bicycle lobby at work again. Their interests are paramount and they have access to the decision makers in the city. How in equity can a few bike rider be given immense logistical and physical advantage over the rest of us, million dollar pathways for a few hundred recreational and occasional tourists? Bad policy. Give them a place to commute safely but don't give them the heart of the city.

Santa Barbara, what are you doing?? Take that bike lane out asap! The bicycle brigade fought and fought to be treated like vehicles and we gave them the right to act as a vehicle. Currently, vehicles cannot drive in or on the state street promenade so why the heck are you giving bicyclists a giant highway essentially giving them state street? You’re calling it a promenade (French for “walking”) yet this will undoubtedly put pedestrians in danger. I encourage you to rethink this and make them take another path for now. I love riding my bike but I’ll survive if I can’t ride on state st for a year.
Also, are we just done with Parades or what?

Considering all the piles of fancy new white bikes that have been made available recently, did anyone believe The City would actually reduce bike access?

It's supposed to be a promenade, not a freeway lane for bikes. For the kind of bikers that are causing problems, this idea will not work at all. Kids popping out of control wheelies will still be running into pedestrians and other obstacles at random. I bike downtown frequently, and primarily use Anacapa and Bath streets. I don't use State for the same reason I don't use the Cabrillo Beachway- too many obstacles to slow me down.

I’m guessing the green won’t accomplish much, but I appreciate the splash of color.

Will this take care of the malicious teen bike gangs, aggressive panhandlers, and street gangs? If so I'm all for the green paint.

Just like there is no reason to drive a car on State, there is no reason to turn it into a massive bike lane. If you are cycling for transportation, use Anacapa or Chapala. Bikes should be WALKED on State only if this is to be a true promenade. We don't need people cycling through a pedestrian area.

The green zones look like some kind of mini golf course. In the old days, a great deal of effort was put into making road markings standardized so motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians all knew what to expect wherever they went. It seems the new thinking is to use novel road markings so folks are always a little unsure of how to interpret them.

Santa Barbara said they took their inspiration from 3rd Street Promenade, yet really just copied the concept. Santa Monica removed riding your bike down 3rd since 2015. They now direct all bike traffic to second street, you can park your bike on the promenade. What happens when they remove outdoor dining in 1 year? City Council said plans for the Promenade (that will never happen) will take 3-5 years till construction begins. City’s historical dept will want to be on site for every hole dug.

My vote (of which I have none!) is no bikes...make state street fully pedestrian.

Their intent is great but execution sucks. Ugly, and WAY TO WIDE, it's supposed to be a pedestrian promenade not a bicycle superhighway, it certainly won't encourage bikers to slow down. Why does this need to be so wide, wouldn't the same width as the bike paths works?

I don't see how this is going to work unless there are physical barriers along the pathway. State should be pedestrian only. A bike path belongs on a side street like Anacapa and not on State. If we actually had a good network of safe bike paths State street could be a destination people could bike to. But there is no reason to bike on State.

great idea