Santa Monica Spoke submitted the following letter to support the awarding of a contract to design a protected bikeway on 14th Street at last night’s City Council meeting. The motion passed 7-0.
Subject: Item 4B: Please support a Protected Bikeway for a Safer 14th Street
Date: Tuesday, September 08, 2026 2:23 PM
Dear Mayor Torosis, Mayor Pro Tem Zwick and City Council Members:
On behalf of Santa Monica Spoke and the Santa Monica Safe Streets Alliance, we are writing to support Agenda Item 4B.
We hear from our community and parents who bike everyday with their kids how important protected bike lanes– like the 14th Street Two-Way Protected Bikeway project– are to their everyday lives and to their feeling of safety as they move about the city by bike.
We know physically protected bike lanes are proven to reduce roadway conflicts between people biking and driving cars. The data is clear. It is critical that Santa Moncia do what is needed to shield vulnerable road users from vehicle conflicts, collisions, and the related impacts and traffic related injuries with protected biking facilities. Protected bike infrastructure also encourages more people, including families with children, to have an easy choice for moving about in their daily activities with healthier and more sustainable, climate-wise transportation modes – like biking.
This 14th Street protected bikeway project is essential for everyone to be safe as they get out of their cars and to ride bikes. In a time of the climate crisis, which affects us personally now, evidenced by the LA fires and the temperatures in Santa Monica rising to near 90 degrees daily this month and ocean temperatures rising to 76 degrees, bike-riding is a climate solution that the City must promote and ensure is safe!
Please approve the design contract with the funding necessary to advance the 14th Street Two-Way Protected Bikeway Project without delay and continue the overwhelmingly community supported commitment of creating safer streets and a more environmentally sustainable Santa Monica. At this time in history, a car-centric Santa Monica is dangerous.
Thank you for your continued commitment to safer streets or everyone.
Sincerely,
Cynthia Rose and Cris Gutierrez
