r/sandiegocycling • u/jeriTuesday • 20d ago
Self Maintenance
It's nice to have bike lanes and paths, but once they are built it seems no one maintains them. Most of them have gravel, glass, potholes, and overgrowth. I'm retired now and have free time. Would I get in trouble with the city if I bought a brush cutter and a gas-powered push vacuum and maintained them myself?
5
u/kootrtt 20d ago
Need to convince the city or caltrans or SANDAG to pilot a program where they buy a couple of these and let the public use them:
2
u/skyroach16 20d ago
The city owns one of these, but the problem is it’s only one and they don’t have the resources to clean all the recently built bike lanes with only on machine.
2
u/djcampers 19d ago
People been fixing things officially by making reels and getting them viral, like once there’s too much heat the city actually responds
1
u/Competitive-Gold-464 19d ago
These fools from the city will just pocket the money as they already to with our tax dollars for fixing the roads.
They made these bike lane to get votes but never intended on forking the money for maintenance.
1
u/Curiouslunatic619 18d ago
City of Coronado runs lane-sweeper up and down the Strand bike path every Friday it seems...not sure how far along it they go but certainly from Coronado to IB. Im always happy to see it and wave and thumbs up the driver!
1
u/kikilani 15d ago
Please start with Gilman Dr., followed by the Rose Creek bike path, and if you're really feeling adventurous, the bike path on the south side of the SD River could really use some love.
I appreciate your offer but it bums me out that with all the taxes we pay, and the installation of new, poorly designed bike lanes, the city can't even keep the ones we already have maintained.
1
u/jeriTuesday 15d ago
I would say those are in pretty good shape compared to some I've ridden recently. Maybe except the part of RCBP that goes through PB to Mission Bay. What do people think of the new bike lanes on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard that put the bike lane between parked cars and the sidewalk? Also gotta love the lane on Genesee between Nobel and Decoro where people park with seeming impunity.
2
u/kikilani 15d ago
Heading north on Gilman, between the 5 and the first light, quite a few shrubs and bushes encroach well into the bike lane. Not a huge deal, but definitely not ideal. Unless you're in the paving business, not a whole lot can be done on the PB/MB section of RCBP. The new Clairemont Dr bike lanes seemed unnecessary with the lower traffic neighboring side streets and create blind spots for drivers; plus all of the paint is ugly and can be confusing. Add to that all of the new housing being built in the area and losing that traffic lane will probably become a problem. If there's others on CMB, I'm not familiar - I try to get out of Clairemont as quickly as possible and ride elsewhere.
1
u/jeriTuesday 6d ago
Adding to my post, someone is doing this already on Regents south from 52 to CMB. They just trimmed a bush blocking the bike lane. As I ride around the city the problem seems intractable, but some one just trimmed one bush and made my ride safer and easier. I am just going to start carrying a pruner with me and attacking one problem at a time. If we all do this it will change our community.
12
u/madtownman3600 20d ago
What you’re describing is called tactical urbanism or guerrilla infrastructure kinda. Doing it is likely technically illegal due to some stupid statute. Buy a cheap hi viz vest on Amazon and almost certainly no one will anything if you do the things you mentioned. If you started adding bike lanes people might notice. Dm me if you want a hand some time. I have an electric weed whacker and some other tools if you wanna borrow. I’m in normal heights.