Green Changes to State Street Promenade

great idea

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

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?

What the actual... who approved the bike promenade, where pedestrians need to hug the sides and skirt around the parklets to make room for cyclists? Why is the bike lane not along the side? Piss. Poor. Planning.

How much teeth will this green paint bare without enforcement?
I was just downtown, and the De la Guerra block was inundated with groups of kids on bikes doing their watch-me-wheelies all over the place while shouting obscenities. This is the current reality. Is The City aware?

Why haven’t they painted stop signs for the bicyclist. Today I was half way through the intersection by the art museum and two bikers didn’t even stop. Blew my horn and kept going. They NEED to stop at an intersection as the DMV handbook requires. Or bring back timed lights for cars & cyclist/pedestrians

Haven’t been on the “promenade” yet; guess we won’t ever be....

Hey Cathy Murillo, looks like you won’t be winning re-election. People don’t seem too pleased with your pandemic recovery plan. Doubt she’ll be holding any public office if/when this ever gets built.

What is happening to our town? Where are the watchdogs? Why weren’t residents given a voice? Ban bikes. I won’t be going anywhere near this area. Very sad.

Look to Europe for solutions, Germany in particular. Very organized and workable. No bikes allowed for obvious reasons.

Keep it up for St. Patricks Day. Have a family parade on the Green. Then get rid of this eyesore.

Laatest in uglification. What next? Concrete life-sized ducks dressed in costumes changed every season and holiday?

Waaaayyyy Tooooo Wide... making very ineffective for walkers(like meeee).

The State Street promenade should be for pedestrians only. No bikes and no skateboards. Trying to drive across State Street is challenging because many bicyclists fail to stop when riding down the street even though there are flashing red lights for this at four way intersections.

I am a devoted cyclist but this is madness! At the risk of repeating earlier comments, these bike lanes are ugly and out of place in a (supposed) pedestrian promenade. They will encourage some cyclists to ride even faster than they do now and pose greater risk to pedestrians, especially visitors who don’t understand the pattern. Some speeding cyclists will doubtless go flying
into the car traffic that crosses State at several intersections. I foresee some ugly collisions between bikes and walkers, also between bikes and cars. Madness.

ok....lets stop responding with what we personally want and respond with what is best for everyone. No, there should not be pedestrian only on that much of space. Bikes can't go on the sidewalks nor can scooters and skateboards. The street is 3x the size of each sidewalk on either side of the street. So you want to try to convince everyone that there isn't enough room for bikes and other modes of transport when we had two lanes of cars and trucks driving up and down it for decades? Think about that and think of the math i just laid out. No it will not be just for pedestrians. That's a massive amount of wasted space and a very self serving mentality. Per the article, peds can be on the side walks AND street, but bikes do need a space to ride. I agree/disagree with the barrier comment, but logic points to that being the best result, albeit it ugly and out of place and bikes would be stuck in said barrier when a cyclist has the right to roam as do peds and skaters. Side walk is only for peds. Street is mixed use. We do NOT have that many people walking around downtown, even on a nice saturday afternoon. To say it should only be for peds is laughable at best. I'm sure you'll pick apart my comment, but i don't care. I'm trying to be as partial as possible. I walk, skate, rollerblade and mountain bike all over downtown daily and nightly.