In April, City officials updated Pacific Beach Planning Group on plans to make permanent the temporary Slow Streets Program on Diamond Street, which was instituted during the pandemic to facilitate non-motorized travel.

Those plans include several changes including the placement of permanent signs, bollards or diverters, and striping or lane markings, along with designated crossings. A cornerstone of the Pacific Beach EcoDistrict, PB Pathways are safe, comfortable neighborhood streets that connect to places without driving a car.

The Slow Streets Program closing off Diamond Street to motorized travel from Mission Boulevard to Haines Street in was introduced by former Mayor Kevin Faulconer in April 2020 as a temporary measure following the closure of the PB boardwalk during COVID. The objective was to create safe shared spaces allowing residents to get around for essential travel while maintaining physical distancing.

“The PB community has had Diamond Street on its PB Pathways network since 2015,” said Everett Hauser of the City’s Transportation Department and Mobility Planning Program.

Asked about the timeline for transitioning Diamond Street from temporary to permanent slow streets status, Hauser replied, “Our goal is to get it in by May 31.”

Hauser pointed out that PB Pathways is a way-finding measure involving the “identification of lower-volume streets” in order to navigate neighborhood streets more easily. He noted slow streets were started, in conjunction with PB Pathways, after both the beaches and parks were closed. Diamond Street was then selected as the most desirable spot to model slow streets.

Hauser said the Slow Streets Program on Diamond Street was well publicized and that the community actively promoted it as well as having an online survey to get community feedback on it. “It was a unique application at the time,” he said adding, “Last year, PB Planning Group made a recommendation for the City to upgrade signage and conduct outreach.”

In February 2022, Kohta Zaiser, the mayor’s deputy director of community engagement, told PB Town Council, “The Slow Streets Program is moving forward. This was a pilot program for shared space, the first of its kind in the City.”

Of the City’s proposed changes back then, Zaiser noted: “Instead of A-frame signs now at the end of every block, we may be installing diverters, which are bollards (short vertical posts), that will go in the middle of the street and essentially take the role that A-frames play. It is a natural reducer of speed that cars will have to go around to get access to the street. This is something that will allow safer use of the road for all ages and all vehicle users.”

“We’re (City’s) proposing putting in a couple of diverter systems that would restrict vehicles requiring cars going east and west to make right-only turns, but still allow pedestrians and people on bikes, blades or other wheels to go through,” noted Hauser, “Really what that’s trying to do is the same as what the PB Pathways system is trying to do: keep these streets identified as your network, but also keep the traffic volumes lower, which helps keep speeds down and makes it a much more pleasant place for people walking and running.”

After the City’s slideshow presentation, PBPG board member Scott Chipman pointed out that slow streets have been controversial. “I just want to remind people that this was not universally supported,” said Chipman. “There was a (previous) presentation at PB Town Council with very mixed reviews. A lot of people came in and said, ‘Why are you changing my street?’ People who live, and have a history, on the street shouldn’t be abused. Being abused verbally is what residents on that street have had to endure. And people on adjacent streets are saying, ‘Why are you funneling more traffic onto our street which is causing speeding and congestion?’”

PBPG member Gordon Froehlich said he spoke recently with a Diamond Street neighbor who told him, “She liked the concept of the slow street, but she thinks it’s dangerous now.”

Other board members pointed out those traveling on wheels typically “don’t stop for signage.”

One Diamond Street neighbor, a 45-year resident, commented that “the barricades were a nightmare for us” asking, “And now you want to make them so that cars can’t go through – only people and bikes?”