A major upgrade for cyclists is coming to Downtown Santa Cruz. On May 24th, the Santa Cruz City Council added new funding for a contra-flow bike lane on Pacific Avenue to their 2016-2017 budget. A contra-flow lane is a bike lane that allows cyclists to travel against traffic, and allows two-way bike traffic on one-way streets. Santa Cruz has another contra-flow lane on the 1-way section of High Street, between Storey and Highland.
The contra-flow lane will run from Church to Cathcart, and allow two-way bike traffic on most of Pacific. The exception is the last block of Pacific, from Church to Water—installing a contra-flow lane in this section would require reconfiguring the intersection of Pacific & Water, which is much more expensive. Bike Santa Cruz County will be looking at this as a possible Phase II project.
The project will include green lane striping to make the lane more visible to drivers and pedestrians. Public Works staff is considering striping the entire bike lane green to make it extra visible.
Huge thanks to everyone who came to a meeting or wrote a letter of support for this project, and to Council members Don Lane, Pamela Comstock, Micah Posner, David Terrazas, Cynthia Chase, and Richelle Noroyan for approving these funds.