Confused by downtown San Jose’s new traffic lanes? You’re not alone

If you’ve been driving around downtown San Jose this week, you couldn’t be blamed for thinking you’d stumbled onto an obstacle course or a graveyard of abandoned vehicles. Cars and trucks are parked side by side, bikes are zipping in and out of traffic and drivers are dodging workers who are busy painting crosswalks.

What in the Mad Max is going on here?

It’s the unfortunate growing pains of the Better BikewaySJ project, which aims to create safer, more protected paths for bicyclists as well as traffic-calming measures to help pedestrians. The plans were the focus of several community meetings, with critics saying the changes would lead to lost parking as well as confusion and chaos. Other downtown construction projects that have closed lanes or created detours aren’t helping.

Part of the current mess is occurring because the street redesigns aren’t completed. Bike lanes have been painted in but not painted green. Right-turn lanes have disappeared on some streets. And spots for vehicle parking — now to the left of the bike lane instead of against the curb — have been installed in places where drivers are used to seeing a lane of traffic.

You can guess what happens next: People are parking in the old spots — which are now the bike lane — and others are parking in the new spots, blocking them in.

“This is ridiculous,” said Maria Ramirez, who was stuck in that situation Friday morning. “There’s going to be a bad accident before too long.” She had to back her car in between two others to get out of her parking spot in front of Town Park Towers on North Third Street.

The city clearly anticipated this confusion since cars parked on the affected streets — including Third, Fourth, San Fernando and St. John streets — have had fliers placed on their windshields about “How to use the new street.” You can also get the primer at sanjoseca.gov/betterbikeways. Among the information you’ll find there is that until green plastic bollards are installed separating the new bike lanes, drivers should still be parking next to the curb and not in the new spaces.

An update posted on the site this week said, “The whole process will likely be a couple of months from start to finish. In the meanwhile, there may be some confusion. Already we’ve heard concerns related to moving traffic, parked cars, and rolling dumpsters. We’re aware of these challenges and are addressing them.”

City transportation officials have said everything will make more sense once the project is completed and drivers get used to the new spaces. And there’s a good chance that’s true: that’s what happened when a protected bike lane was installed next to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Main Library on South Fourth Street. Drivers even got used to the back-in, angled parking on South Second Street.

But for the time being, drivers, cyclists and pedestrians all should take a deep breath and be careful. It’s a mess out there.

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