Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Bike Lanes

The World’s Nuttiest Bike Lane NIMBYs Live in a San Diego Beach Community

3:56 PM EDT on September 24, 2015

coronado_bike_lane
Look at this visual cacophony long enough and it will induce a dizzying type of vertigo.

Think you've read about every possible NIMBY objection to bike lanes? Think again. These recent comments from a public meeting in San Diego’s affluent Coronado beach community are definitely, um, different.

At the meeting, city leaders were bombarded with objections -- not about parking, traffic, or "scofflaws" on bikes, but about the "visual pollution" of painted stripes on the road. There's just something about a bike lane stripe that aesthetically revolts these people in a way that, say, a dashed yellow center stripe never will.

Local news station KPBS.org says Coronado is a "haven for bicyclists" (the League of American Bicyclists named it a silver-level Bike Friendly Community in 2013). Apparently, it's also a haven for world-class NIMBYs, as evidenced by these amazing comments captured by KPBS (we left off the names to be merciful):

    • “You are covering Coronado with paint stripe pollution.”
    • “The graffiti on the streets does not help our property values."
    • The lanes “bring to mind a visual cacophony that if you look there long enough it will induce a dizzying type of vertigo." [Editor's note: This one wins!]
    • "These black streets with these brilliant white lines everywhere ... believe me, it takes away from your home, from your outlook on life.”
    • “It’s very similar to personally taking all three of my daughters to a tattoo parlor and having them completely body tattooed." [Editor's note: Okay, maybe this one.]

Now that you've had a laugh, here comes the not-funny part: As a result of these ridiculous complaints, the City Council voted not to continue with a plan to add 12 miles of bike lanes. According to KPBS, from 2005 to 2013, bicyclists were struck by motor vehicle drivers more than 800 times in Coronado, resulting in 48 severe injuries and 7 fatalities.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Want a Better 15-Minute City? Ask Residents What They Really Want

A new study from Bogotá models how other cities can ask a deeper set of questions about how to put essential needs within walking, biking or transit distance.

March 19, 2024

Tuesday’s Headlines Win the Gold

Two articles detail efforts in Paris and Los Angeles to put on (relatively) climate-friendly Olympic games in 2024 and 2028.

March 19, 2024

Monday’s Headlines Drink Your Milkshake

How does a president end wasteful subsidies for the highly profitable fossil fuel industry? Many have tried, but none have succeeded, including Joe Biden.

March 18, 2024

How — and Why — To Start a Neighborhood E-Bike Library

American advocates are loaning out e-bikes to their neighbors — and creating flocks of new riders.

March 18, 2024

What Urbanists’ Doug Burgum Lovefest Reveals About the ‘Why’ Behind Our Advocacy

I am far less interested in talking about Gov. Doug Burgum's politics than talking about his values, and how those values shape his urbanism, and thus the actual lives of the people he governs.

March 15, 2024
See all posts