I am sorry to see your slanted coverage of the bike lane on 30th issue. No one on the side against the installation of a bike lane was quoted, while several advocates were. This is not balanced reporting, it is an editorial! There are good arguments in favor of the lanes, but there are also points that support not installing them on 30th Street. You made NO mention of the fact that there is already a bike lane on Utah to Upas.

I have no problem with you publishing an editorial supporting your position on the issue, but your front-page article is masquerading as news, not an opinion piece.

I now know not to read your paper for news.

—    Cathy Greene, North Park

I applaud the idealism of those who want to create a world in which large numbers of cars are displaced by bikes. But implementing such a model in North Park by adding protected bike lanes to 30th Street at the expense of most or all of the parking is an experiment in social engineering that gambles with the livelihood of merchants and their employees. We may wish biking would relieve traffic congestion on 30th Street but it isn’t a workable solution.

Where bike lanes have been established in San Diego, the majority aren’t being used enough to warrant their cost and disruption to busy roads. On a recent sunny, weekend morning I walked along University Boulevard from Park Boulevard to Front Street and saw only two bikers using the new bike lanes. When I walked back two hours later, there were none.

Businesses along University Boulevard have not been helped by the removal of parking and I fear many stores along 30th will suffer the same result. Even though parking is being added to adjoining streets, delivery trucks, emergency vehicles and customers, especially the disabled and elderly, require easily accessible parking in order to maintain and increase the vibrancy and security of the North Park community.

North Park is an old neighborhood and some streets, such as 30th, can’t be retrofitted to please everyone’s needs. Compromises must be made such as protecting the existing bike lane on Utah Street, expanding it onto 30th only when it crosses Switzer Canyon and then moving it off of 30th and onto less traveled streets.

But more bike lanes are hardly a total solution to fulfilling our city’s climate action plan. The discussion about 30th Street needs to be more comprehensive. Other possibilities, such as self-driving cars, smart traffic controls, and a proposed 30th Street trolley line may provide more effective ways of relieving congestion in the future. Painting stripes on pavement is a cheap way for our city to pat itself on its back for addressing climate change. I think North Park deserves much more.

—    Jennifer Sarff, North Parkv