Photo courtesy of: KSBY.com 

The rise in bike safety around San Luis Obispo has San Luis Obispo High School students feeling more comfortable when riding a bike. 

The medians that are designed to provide a safer experience for bikers in downtown San Luis Obispo comes after a rise in bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities across the state.

Over sixty injury collisions involving bicyclists and pedestrians were investigated by the San Luis Obispo Police Department in 2019. 

Students are glad to see that action is being done to get that number lower in 2022. 

“Yeah. [It] puts me further away from the cars on the street, and so I don’t know [it] helps,” said junior Grant Steins. 

The rise in bike safety is a part of the city’s 4.2 million paving project. 

“We have a lot of bike lanes and there’s a lot of new bike infrastructure being put into place,” said junior Brandon Jenson. 

The bike lane is now being protected by the parked cars, adding more safety to those out biking in downtown. 

The new bike safety is helping students feel more safe when biking to school. 

“Bike lanes are really helpful, without the big bike lanes and infrastructure, I probably wouldn’t be biking to school,” said Jenson. 

Most of downtown San Luis Obispo is getting improved bike infrastructure. However, closer to school there is not much being done to protect bikes from cars. 

“I think like that intersection right out by the tennis courts. There could be a lot done for bikes there because there’s so many students that pass it everyday and so many bikes, that [there] are a lot of close calls,” said Steins. 

The new protected bike lanes are helping bikers feel more seen by drivers. 

“I feel like they’re probably more aware. But the new green in the bike lane definitely pops out,” said Jenson. 

At the end of the day, most bicyclists agree that the new changes are good. 

“Yeah, I think it really encourages more people to ride bikes as opposed to cars, which helps limit traffic and also helps the environment,” said Steins. 

San Luis Obispo was rated as a top city for biking in the United States in 2021. It was ranked higher in awareness, network, safety, and ridership than the average small city. However, it was not close to meeting a perfect score. With these new changes, we are getting closer to that perfect score. 

The new bike lanes are being added along Higuera and Marsh street.

The first phase of the construction started in the summer of 2021, with the second phase starting in the summer of 2022. 

Sources: ksby.com, slocity.org