On Tuesday, the City Council approved a contract with an engineering and environmental services firm to create an implementation plan and other studies to help pay for and advance a broad range of improvements to get people around the city more safely and easily.

The work is part of the next step in implementing Carlsbad’s Sustainable Mobility Plan, approved by the City Council in January 2021. The plan is designed to help improve transportation-related safety, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase travel options for people of all ages and abilities. It includes:

• Bicycle, pedestrian, transit access and ADA improvements
• Connected walking, cycling, transit and trail networks
• Programs like Safe Routes to Schools and cycling education to encourage active transportation
• Public transit including on-demand options to connect business hubs with transit centers  
• Prioritized infrastructure improvements to enhance connectivity citywide
• Mobility hubs featuring car-share and bike-share services
• Improvements in underserved communities
• Ways to get people to drive alone less, and instead walk, bike, ride transit or carpool more

Tuesday's approval also includes updating the city’s current Traffic Impact Fee so that private development projects pay for their fair share of the city’s future transportation improvements. For example, instead of charging developers a fee to fund road improvements focused on cars, the city will recalibrate our development fees to help fund improvements for all roadway users like bike infrastructure, bike and walking paths and wider sidewalks. 

The consulting firm, Fehr & Peers, will create an implementation plan focused on realistic funding strategies for designing and building recommended projects in the Sustainable Mobility Plan.

Traffic and mobility are top priorities in the City of Carlsbad. On Aug. 23, the city declared a local state of emergency due to a more than 200% increase in collisions involving bikes and e-bikes since 2019. 

The City Council approved $2 million for immediate traffic safety efforts. The traffic safety emergency declaration has already allowed the city to immediately redeploy resources, accelerate some projects already in the pipeline and rally the entire community around creating safer streets together. 

More information
Staff report
Sustainable Mobility Plan
Safer Streets Together webpage