After roughly two and a half years of construction, the Pershing Bikeway project in San Diego partially opened this weekend. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held at Bird Park along Pershing Drive on Saturday morning. San Diego City Councilmembers Sean Elo-Rivera and Stephen Whitburn, along with Mayor Todd Gloria all attended the official kick off for the bikeway.
The Pershing Drive Bikeway begins in North Park at Utah and Landis Street, going all the way down to C Street in downtown. The 2.3 mile-long path is protected behind an island, providing more safety for bikers and pedestrians. The bikeway is a $14 million project through SANDAG and its "Go By Bike Program," which incentivizes people to use their cars less, help the environment, and give people more options to get around.
Conceptual planning for the project began in 2016, and construction broke ground in early 2022. There were a few delays in construction work because of the unusually rainy season in San Diego, according to the project's manager, Chris Carterette. Fast forward to today, Carterette said it's nice to finally see this project come full circle.
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"It's really exciting because it is so transformative and we hope that people really come to enjoy it and see that a piece of Balboa Park has been given back for park use," said Carterette.
Nearly the entire pathway along Pershing Drive is finished, with the exception of a portion right across the street from Bird Park. SANDAG told NBC 7 that construction is expected to wrap up in the coming days. There are also some finishing touches being done on the Jacaranda Place and Redwood Street connectors, just down the hill along Pershing Drive. SANDAG said those will be finished next month.
Reporting on biking in San Diego
Randy Torres-Van Vleck is an advocate for biker safety. He led the first community bike ride for the official opening of the pathway on Saturday morning. Torres-Van Vleck told NBC 7 that it took a lot to get to this point of having this bikeway made, including losing one of his dear friends.
"One of my closest friends, Javi Palacios, was biking to my house in 2015, right here on Pershing and Redwood and he was hit by a motorist head-on and he barely survived. But he ended up succumbing to his injuries three years later and passed away in 2018, and tragically Javi left behind three young daughters," said Torres Van-Vleck.
The fight to keep bikers safe isn't over for Torres-Van Vleck. To him, this is the first step in making sure that no other family has to experience what Palacios' did, as well as other families who suffered the same tragic loss to traffic-related fatalities in recent years.
"It shouldn't take more people dying on the streets to propel that. The data could tell us now where the most unsafe streets are. So we need to be able to use data, stories and recognize that some communities haven't had their fair share of investments, so we need to do more to change that," said Torres-Van Vleck.
SANDAG told NBC 7 that multiple bikeway projects are currently under construction, including the Imperial Bikeway, the Inland Rail Trail, as well as the Bayshore Bikeway that goes from San Ysidro to Imperial Beach. The Eastern Hillcrest Bikeways has gone up to bid, according to SANDAG, and will start construction soon.
In the near future, the University Bikeway, a 3 mile segment planned for the mid-city area, will be advertised for bid in August.
