Gotta ask about bike lanes 

Bike lanes in this town are going wild. Everywhere now, one sees carefully constructed curbs, exquisitely painted lanes involving a lot of green: all inspiring a great amount of WTFs on the part of those scoundrels who prefer to use automobiles, as the visual effect can be quite confusing to drivers, if not downright intimidating. Yet, I suppose it is all intended for the greater good.

The problem is that I rarely see anyone actually using the bike lanes. I did see a guy using one on Laurel recently, but he got back up on the sidewalk at the earliest opportunity, so I'm not sure if it counts. That was pretty much it for the day as far as I saw.

So what is going on? It this some sort of "build it and they will come" thing? If so, they don't seem to be coming by bike. Mostly Teslas near as I can tell. Were studies done to assess the actual bicycle traffic before embarking on what appears to be massive spending on bike lanes?

It is proposed to spend more than $18 million extending a bike trail to Avila and require the seizure of private property to do it. How many bicyclists would actually benefit from it? Is it really worth it? You could help a lot of homeless people with that kind of money. Or would it just sit there, languishing in the sunlight like most of the bike lanes in this town?

Mark Henry

San Luis Obispo