The Worst Bike Lanes in Santa Cruz County

Santa Cruz County in its budget to maintain bicycle lanes. Now, the question is, which ones need it most, and are there places we need lanes that we don't have?

Bicycle advocate, Micah Posner of People Power, has his favorites. You can add yours to the comments section here, and they will be referred to Public Works director John Presleigh.

King Street: This main Santa Cruz thoroughfare between downtown and the West side brings students to schools, including UC Santa Cruz and Mission Hill Middle School, and is the only alternative to jam-packed Mission Street.

It has a bike lane, but it shares it with parked cars. Residents don't want to lose that parking; however, Posner would prefer the street to be into a bike boulevard, blocking through traffic for cars but allowing full access to bikes.

Berkeley has had great success with this on roads that parallel crowded Telegraph Avenue.

Martinelli and Lincoln Streets in Watsonville: Martinelli Street connects a residential neighborhood to Macquiddy Elementary School and could use a good bicycle lane for kids. Lincoln goes by WatsonvilleHigh School and is a valuable path to downtown.

Soquel Drive in Aptos: This lane runs by Cabrillo College with its 17,000 students. The trouble with it is that the lane is shared by parked cars by the campus, and having a door opened in a biker's path is always a threat.

Arana Gulch, Santa Cruz: Residents want to keep their coastside park pristine with its dirt paths. Bicycle groups want to pave the paths to make a better bicycle commute from the Harbor to Soquel Drive and downtown.

McGregor Drive, Aptos, Capitola: One side has a lane. The other used to, but it has been erased by crews installing drain pipes. The frontage road connects South County with Capitola and the beach route to Santa Cruz.

Highway 9, Felton: This road connects the north side of Felton with San Lorenzo Valley High School and needs safe bike lanes for students. The highway is always crowded, and bicycles could help replace cars if it were more safe.

Empire Grade, Santa Cruz: The site where bicycle courier Zachary Parke was killed last month often needs bushes cut and the road swept so cyclists don't have to stray into the lanes of fast-moving cars.

Mar Vista, Aptos: A bike bridge leading over Highway 1 was theoretically funded before the budget crashed. Posner says it's the only safe way for the large number of kids who live on one side of the highway to get to the Mar Vista Elementary school on the other.

Brookside Road, Santa Cruz: This one-way wooded street by Dominican Hospital could use a reverse direction bicycle lane to connect the neighborhood on the north side of the highway to Soquel, Capitolaand Watsonville without having to ride miles out of the way toBranciforte.

What are your suggestions for bicycle lanes that need work? Post them here and add a picture for even better illustration. After all, who knows what needs to be done better than the cyclists who use the roads?