Bicycle Counts in Santa Barbara have shown a large decrease in ridership since 1973, depite Millions of dollars spent on bike paths.

Bike Count for State and De la Vina St. - 24 November 2008.

Total number counted 41 during 07:00 to 09:00 AM
Total first 1/2 hour 5 with only 1 from 7:15-7:30, despite perfect riding weather for commuters. It would appear close to 20-25% were retired or recreational. This is a great difference from the mostly Mexican/ immigrant commuter crowd of 5 years ago. The commuter number going into Santa Barbara used to be ~55%, but is now ~48%.

The largest single time distribution average was 1 bike rider in one direction approximately every 3 minutes.

Conditions: High: 67° Low: 52° Mostly Cloudy Feels Like: 65° Barometer: 30.03 in and falling Humidity: 58% Visibility: 9 mi Dewpoint: 50° Wind: SSW 3 mph Sunrise: 6:41 am Sunset: 4:50 pm

Claims by the City of Santa Barbara and anti-car groups, that difficult economic times create significant numbers of bicyclists, have not been realized. Remember the highest count was August 2007 when the Bicycle Coalition attempted to sand bag the numbers and there were ~80 riders at this commute time. They could not sustain that effort and it actually drew away bicyclists from other locations.

Some bike-riding police officers reportedly now avoid riding on streets with curb bulbouts due to their safety concerns.

As a result of multiple years of street changes that have failed to improve transportation in Santa Barbara, the city is once again going full steam ahead with their political agenda, regardless of their failure and the intentional problems they have caused.

What happens when "traffic calming" and "congestion-relief" programs in different cities turn out to increase congestion? What happens when Traffic Managers are caught using questionable safety numbers and accident rates to promote intentional street congestion? What happens when traffic/parking "Smart Growth" fails across the nation, and no longer supports current long term traffic goals?

The City is now trying to reclassify De La Vina and other streets, to further slow your drive.