Between Cal Poly students, faculty, SLO Classical Academy, Teach Elementary, local businesses and other residents in the neighborhood, Grand Avenue is one of the busier streets in San Luis Obispo.
“We obviously have a lot of pedestrian and cyclist traffic with our proximity to Cal Poly and with the Highway 101 on and off ramps nearby,” said City of SLO Supervising Civil Engineer Wyatt Banker-Hix.
In 2021, the city identified Grand Avenue as part of the 10% of streets throughout SLO that contribute to 50% of all accidents. In 2023, one fatal accident on the corner of Grand Avenue and Fredericks Street, that resulted in the death of first-year Cal Poly student Sean Hillman, expedited the city’s need to address safety concerns.
“It definitely galvanized the need within the city that this was something that we needed to expedite,” Banker-Hix stated.
According to Banker-Hix, in September 2024, changes were implemented to reduce speeds and create more separation between pedestrians and bicyclists from cars. Those changes included the removal of one lane each way to make space for medians that would further separate bikes and cars. Also included was the re-striping of different areas for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians to safely walk. The roadway was also narrowed to help reduce speeds.
But since they’ve been implemented, some people who work and live in the surrounding neighborhood say it hasn’t improved anything, it’s only made it harder.
“They haven't improved anything," said MaryAnn Jakes, who works at the church off Grand Avenue next to the on-ramp to Highway 101. "They've made it much more difficult. Traffic is backed up in the mornings. It's backed up almost to Monterey Street.”
Jakes says the increased traffic makes it difficult to get in or out of the church's parking lot during peak traffic hours.
“I don't know who's turning," she said. "I have to watch multiple cars, streams of cars coming by, bicycles. I don't know who's going where.”
One Cal Poly student said he agrees that the changes have affected the flow of traffic for cars but have allowed a safer pathway for bicyclists, which was the biggest reason for having the project in the first place.
“It's not as convenient for cars," he admitted. "But it should be catered more to bikes around campus especially.”
Banker-Hix says the city will complete the final striping and temporary barriers along Grand Avenue in the next couple of weeks and the city will then evaluate its effectiveness over the next year to see what else still needs to be improved in 2026.
For many of the unhappy residents and commuters in that area, there's still time to make adjustments, which was the reason for making it a pilot project in the first place. The city will watch heavy traffic events like Cal Poly graduation and move-in days as key markers to figure out how to best utilize Grand Avenue most efficiently and safely.
