There are five proposed locations for the new Bikeshare program’s stations in Ocean Beach and eight in Point Loma, but at least one bicycle advocate said she is dismayed to find out the Point Loma locations are all clustered only at Liberty Station.
A privately financed network of bike-sharing stations throughout the city will allow short-term rental of bicycles traveling in between solar-powered and automated stations.
The new Bikeshare program, expected to be rolled out this summer, will be conducted in phases, with the goal of ultimately providing 180 stations and 1,800 bikes citywide.
In Ocean Beach, five Bikeshare stations are proposed: 5059 Newport Ave., Cable Street at the bus stop, Sunset Cliffs Boulevard and Newport Avenue, Cable Street and Santa Monica Avenue and at Dog Beach on Spray Street between Brighton Street and Long Branch Avenue.
Liberty Station locations include Historic Decatur Road (in front of the barracks), Cushing and Roosevelt roads, Farragut and Cushing roads, Chauncey Road, Truxtun and Womble roads, Truxtun Road and Roosevelt Boulevard and at the Point Loma Nazarene University bus drop-off.
Ocean Beach resident Nicole Burgess, secretary of the Peninsula Community Planning Group, a bike enthusiast and active transportation advocate, said Liberty Station is entirely appropriate for Bikeshare, but she said she feels omitting them elsewhere in Point Loma might be a mistake.
“The locations in Liberty Station make sense, but there are none in the village of Point Loma or Shelter Island,” Burgess said.
If it were up to her, Burgess said she would suggest a Bikeshare station might fit well at the Point Loma/Hervey Branch Library at 3701 Voltaire St.
“If you’re trying to figure out how to make this happen, you need to find ways to make the community more bikable and walkable,” Burgess said, noting there’s also a bike path near Famosa Slough. “There’s huge potential in Point Loma Village.”
Burgess said she liked three of the five proposed Bikeshare locations in Ocean Beach, but she characterized the one proposed on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard as “a huge danger.”
“Why are we putting bike stations on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard when we have Bacon Street as a bike boulevard?” Burgess asked. “They should put their bikeshares on those.”
Despite issues involved with vetting the various proposed Bikeshare locations, Burgess noted it’s a move in the right direction in promoting alternative transportation.
“Bikeshare is a huge steppingstone,” she said. “It’s a great piece of the whole puzzle.”
Burgess said two other positive things about the new Bikeshare program are that you don’t have to own your own bicycle to use it, and that it’s membership-driven.
Burgess warned about proposed Bikeshare locations being placed too far afield, noting the objective should be to lay down an infrastructure network in the city’s core that makes sense and that people will use.
“If you have 180 downtown branches, then the Peninsula should be in your circle, but not up here in La Jolla,” she said.
Burgess said she felt summer rollout of the Bikeshare program might be ambitious, given all the various proposed stations that need to be vetted within their neighborhoods. Fall, after the busy summer tourist season, also might be a less troublesome time to implement the new program, she said.