Nonprofit beautifulPB has been busy lately with PB Counts, its annual neighborhood traffic count, and the creation of a community mural program with funding from the Prebys Foundation and San Diego Audubon Society.
BeautifulPB is a grassroots non-profit that works to create a more sustainable, equitable, and beautiful Pacific Beach. That is accomplished via projects like slow streets, community murals, PB Pathways signage, and climate-action advocacy promoting the lessening of the beach community’s carbon footprint.
PB COUNTS 2023
In an annual tradition since 2015, beautifulPB has undertaken PB Counts, a neighborhood traffic count focused on non-motorized vehicles. It is conducted by volunteers and community members in the western central area of PB. It is the only community-led traffic count conducted regularly in San Diego County, and one of the few that consistently tracks all modes of transportation.
PB Counts was successful in 2023 though there were no real surprises, noted Katie Matchett, beautifulPB president. “The count went well at 10 locations and we had enough volunteers to cover all of our ‘must count’ locations, which are the streets that we have counted consistently over the last nine years,” Matchett said.
She added, “Counting the same streets every year gives us information about long-term trends, and how travel changes in our neighborhood over time.”
This year, Matchett said they were able to count a few additional locations, including some new ones such as Lamont Street/Soledad Road, that have come up in community discussion recently.
“Of course, we can always use more volunteers, because that allows us to cover more places throughout the community,” she added noting, “Overall the mix of traffic has remained pretty consistent over time, with about 60 percent driving and 40 percent biking, walking, etc. We have definitely seen a decrease in e-scooters over the past years. There aren’t nearly as many on the streets as there were when they were first introduced.
“Along with this decrease we saw almost no sidewalk riding, which was a positive trend,” continued Matchett about PB Counts. “This was the first year that we counted traffic on streets in the eastern part of PB, and we saw a noticeable difference in the mix of traffic along that corridor (about 90 percent driving) compared to how people get around closer to the beach.”
There was one emerging traffic trend that PB Counts revealed this year that Matchett noted “We’ve also seen in years past, that is people seem to prefer biking on streets with lower vehicle traffic, even when we compare roads that have marked bicycle lanes to roads that don’t.
“This doesn’t necessarily mean that adding bike lanes to a road is a bad idea. But it does suggest that when we’re talking about high-volume, high-speed roadways (Grand Avenue, Cass Street), bike lanes alone aren’t enough to make people feel safe and comfortable riding. This is one reason we’ve focused on improving the PB Pathways network, which is made up of those slower, lower-volume roads.”
BeautifulPB also continues to see lower vehicle traffic and more biking along Diamond Street, which recently underwent traffic calming using orange plastic bollards. “Diamond Street had the highest percentage of people on bikes of all the locations we counted this year,” noted Matchett.
MURAL PROGRAM
The mural at 1160 Garnet Ave (Everts and Garnet), completed recently by local artist Todd Murphy, is the first beautifulPB has completed as part of its joint work with the San Diego Audubon Society. The stained glass-style mural features the endangered California Least Tern, a migratory bird that returns every year from South America to nest in Mission Bay and other coastal areas of San Diego.
“The intent of the mural is to draw attention not only to this important bird, but also to our community’s connection to the Mission Bay wetlands ecosystem overall,” said Matchett adding, “As part of this project we plan to complete at least one other large-scale mural over the next year, and would love to find additional funding sources to continue this series in the future. Credit to Leslie Dufour and Chris Olson for all their hard work making this project happen.”
