Public Safety

In Wake Of Accident, Encinitas Mayor Calls For Speedier Action On Bike Safety Improvements

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published December 13, 2018 at 7:34 AM PST

This story was published more than 5 years ago.

In response to a serious bicycle accident on Highway 101, in which an Encinitas bicycle advocate was seriously injured earlier this past weekend, Encinitas Mayor Catherine Blakespear is calling for speedy action on improving bike safety measures in Leucadia.

"There’s thousands of cyclists that use Highway 101, Coast Highway, through all of the coastal cities from Oceanside to Del Mar," Blakesepar said. "That whole corridor is used extensively and we need to have a dedicated place for cyclists to be and not have them mixed in with cars in Leucuadia. It’s just an unacceptable situation."

Community leader Roberta Walker is in the hospital with severe injuries after being hit by a truck while riding her bike on Highway 101 in Leucadia last Saturday.

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Blakespear said she hopes to see some improved safety measures for cyclists in Leucadia within two months, prioritizing those upgrades over longer term plans to improve Highway 101.

She will ask city engineers for ideas on things that can be done fast to make cycling along the Coast Highway in Leucadia safer, such as signage and striping. Larger scale changes already in the works, such as a new bike lane and new roundabouts, are likely to take longer, she said.

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.