SAN DIEGO — Drivers on Gold Coast Drive between Hemphill and Empress in Mira Mesa are confused over new striping on the road and people who live in the area fear a horrific crash is coming.
“This is fricken asinine!,” shouted Jay Lombardo riding by us on a bicycle.
The quarter mile stretch of road has just one lane for cars, but it’s a two-way street.
“You know, with distracted drivers, now you have people that have to drive head on toward each other in cars,” Lombardo said. “They have to play bumper cars at the last minute to get away. This is utter lunacy!”
Ironically, this was done for people like Jay. It’s designed to make our roads safer for bicyclists, but the new lanes showed up without warning and with no signs instructing drivers how to handle the situation.
WATCH: Mira Mesa bike lanes on Gold Coast Drive between Hemphill and Empress
“We thought it was a mistake by the striping crew,” said Councilman Chris Cate who represents the area. CBS 8 went to Cate for answers, but he didn’t know about it either.
“I have never seen these lanes in my life. I have never been briefed on it, told about it," Cate said.
CBS 8 is working for you, so we kept digging to find out why the lanes showed up without warning.
What CBS 8 discovered is that the City's transportation department was in charge of the project. The City didn’t provide us with anyone from that department to speak about it, but did provide a City spokesperson.
CBS 8 asked him how someone could drop the ball on something as important as notifying neighbors that drivers will suddenly being heading straight at each other. “You're right,” said Jose Ysea. “It's a major miscommunication.”
Ysea says the transportation department was supposed to notify residents before the striping happened, but somehow that slipped through the cracks.
Now they're putting up signs, but those are confusing too. Neighbors fear someone is going to get seriously hurt. “I almost got hit yesterday,” said Mike Damron, who has lived in the area for 40 years. “I was going down toward the 7-Eleven and a guy fame speeding down the middle and I actually had to turn right away just to avoid getting hit.”
The City says more of these advisory bike lanes are coming, but they didn’t say where or when.
WATCH RELATED: North Park bike lanes: How much are people using them? (Feb. 2022).