Clairemont Drive Bike Lanes: Why a Grand Jury Calls Them a Model

Picture a parked car on Clairemont Drive with its driver's door swung all the way open. In most of San Diego that door would block the bike lane. Here there's still room for a rider to get past it, because the City took out one vehicle lane in each direction to make that space. Some stretches of the bike lane have bollards. Others run next to "floating" parking, so a row of parked cars sits between moving traffic and anyone on a bike. The street's two key intersections have countdown timers, and "Your Speed" signs on both sides show drivers how fast they're going.

That description comes from the San Diego County Civil Grand Jury. In its February 5, 2026 special report, "Shifting Gears," it found that the Clairemont Drive bike lanes "serve as a model for effective Class IV cycle tracks" and are "the kind of bike infrastructure that every San Diego community deserves."

Plenty of people who drive Clairemont Drive every morning would describe it differently. Both views are about the same road. The digging that came with the restriping is substantially finished, and the lane layout was planned as part of the project from the start.

A Pipe Project With Paint Built Into It

Clairemont Drive changed because of Pure Water San Diego. The City's project is officially called "Morena Conveyance South & Middle and Morena Conveyance Bike Lanes," and the bike lanes are written into the name. It put in about 36,170 linear feet of 48-inch wastewater forcemain and the same length of 30-inch welded steel brine pipeline. The route starts at the Morena Pump Station at Sherman and Custer Streets in Bay Park and climbs north through Bay Park to Clairemont Drive. From near Iroquois Avenue, the middle alignment runs up through Bay Ho to Clairemont Mesa Boulevard north of Clairemont Town Square, then to Genesee Avenue, ending near Appleton Street.

The City's project page names five roads that get improved bikeways once the pipe work wraps up: Genesee Avenue, Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, Clairemont Drive, Morena Boulevard and West Morena Boulevard. The City told CBS 8 the plans had been shown to the community planning group and posted on Pure Water webpages since 2019, and had been part of the community plan update since 2021.

Here's how the project ran:

The City's June 24 milestone notice explains what that last phrase means. All major construction is done and the pipes are ready for performance testing. Small items such as punch-list work and closeout may still remain. The notice also thanked "the communities of Morena, Bay Ho, Bay Park, and Clairemont for their patience."

On Clairemont Drive, the lane change was part of the plan for the finished street. Testing and minor closeout work may still remain, and the City described further adjustments near Marston, covered below.

The Same Street, Seen From Marston's Curb

The restriping seems to have arrived quietly. In a CBS 8 report from the fall 2025 school year, the principal of Marston Middle School said staff knew about repaving over the summer but "didn't know about any striping changes." The City confirmed to the station that it had not notified the school directly.

The floating parking that the grand jury praises is the same feature that complicated drop-off. Parents told CBS 8 that the road had gotten more crowded as the school grew, and the station saw a fender-bender in front of Marston during morning drop-off. The City said it had agreed to extend the left-turn lanes and add 16 time-limited floating parking spaces for pickup and drop-off, all "by the end of the calendar year." The school's account was different. It said it had sent six suggestions on September 3, 2025. By its count the City approved one, the longer turn pockets, and was still evaluating a second, moving the MTS bus stop. It rejected the requests to restore curbside loading, add back travel lanes, install a new crosswalk and prohibit overnight parking. The school welcomed the signal-timing changes the City proposed on its own.

Concerns started even before school did. In an earlier CBS 8 story, residents worried that cars stopping to parallel park would hold up the single lane, and that drivers using disabled parking spots would have to cross the bike lane to reach the curb. Eduardo Belasquez, owner of Divine Flowers on Clairemont Drive, raised questions about room for emergency vehicles. "Cars go so fast," he told the station, and with "only one lane here," he expected "a big problem for bikes, pedestrians."

The neighborhood's own forum took a calmer tone. At the Clairemont Community Planning Group's November 18, 2025 meeting, the bike lanes came up as an information item with no vote. The minutes record requests for flaggers during construction, a wish for more street trees after repaving, and complaints about some stoplight buttons. They also record a comment that bike safety and the number of cyclists on Clairemont Drive had improved.

Why the Grand Jury Singled It Out

The grand jury's report covers bike safety across the whole city, and it opens with a crash. Most of the streets it reviews fall short somewhere. Clairemont Drive got its own section, with an unusually playful heading:

"In a curious twist that reflects the confusion expressed by many motorists, Clairemont Drive's varied bike infrastructure has led some bike enthusiasts to declare, 'I Heart Clairemont Drive.'"

The jurors acknowledged that drivers are confused, which is the same complaint heard at Marston. They decided the safety gain was worth it. The width that lets a door swing open without blocking a rider only exists because a car lane was removed. The jury also pointed to connectivity. Because the cycle track has no gaps, residents can ride all the way to the Clairemont trolley station.

The trolley connection may matter more than any one design detail. Most painted bike lanes in San Diego stop at a busy intersection and leave riders to figure out the rest. Clairemont Drive runs down the mesa to a Blue Line station.

The Corridor Beyond Clairemont Drive Is Still Settling

The same pipeline continues north, and the rest of the route has its own details. The November 2025 planning group minutes say Genesee Avenue will stay two lanes in each direction. The City's end-of-2025 update said Clairemont Mesa Boulevard and Genesee would be repaved and restriped in 2026, with curbside parking removed and new striping configurations. Bike-lane striping on Clairemont Mesa was scheduled to follow the April paving. We could not find a dated City notice confirming that the striping on those segments is finished.

Further east, bike lanes on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard have already become part of a story about a local business. In July 2026, CBS 8 reported that the Clairemont location of Havana Grill had closed. The owner gave several reasons, including rising costs, lower foot traffic, and a newly installed bike lane near the I-805 off-ramp, where she said there are no side streets to park on. Mike Insana, who runs Rainbow Service Center and Clairemont Vacuum Repair next door, told the station the restaurant had "brought in a lot of foot traffic." The Mission Valley location is still open. Explore Clairemont covered the closure in its July 9 newsletter. The reports don't say which project striped that stretch, and it is a different segment from the Clairemont Drive route through Bay Ho.

The issue reached the ballot as well. In March 2026, the Union-Tribune covered seven candidates for the open District 2 council seat debating bike lanes together with ADUs and the city budget. Their positions ran from criticism of the cost and the lost parking to support for a connected safety network.

What the Pipe Under the Paint Is For

The pipe under Clairemont Drive carries wastewater north. Roughly 32 million gallons a day will be diverted from the Morena Pump Station to the North City facilities for purification. A separate pipeline will then carry the purified water to Miramar Reservoir.

The City's schedule for water from the system is still a forecast. Its January 2026 Pure Water annual report projects a first delivery of 7.5 million gallons a day to Miramar Reservoir near the end of 2026. A 2026 City presentation expects the system to reach its full 30 million gallons a day in 2027. As of October 11, 2026, we have not found confirmation that purified water has started flowing. The Morena Pump Station page still lists anticipated completion in 2027. The City's long-range goal is for Pure Water to supply nearly half of San Diego's water locally by 2035.

A few things are still open on Clairemont Drive this fall:

1. Whether the longer turn pockets, signal changes and 16 timed loading spaces near Marston were installed. We found no City notice confirming any of them.
2. When final striping on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard and Genesee will be confirmed as finished.
3. When the first purified water reaches Miramar Reservoir. The City's target is near the end of 2026.

Big infrastructure projects like this one change how homeowners talk about their street, and those changes come up when a house goes on the market. If you're thinking about what the new Clairemont Drive means for your property or a family home nearby, Theresa Bish can help you look at it calmly and with local context. Start with a free home valuation.