Aron Ashland, owner of The Cruisery in Santa Barbara, said he’s not sure pedestrians and e-bikes and traditional bikes in a shared space could ever work on downtown State Street.

“I just don’t know if it is possible to make it safe,” Ashland said. “My statement to that would be, how safe could we make it walking along Highway 101? Those cars go 55, 60 miles per hour. So do the bikes on State Street. There’s a 10-year-old without insurance behind one and the other one is a licensed driver.”

Ashland talks about State Street, cars, bikes, pedestrians, retail and restaurants in the latest episode of Santa Barbara Talks with Josh Molina.

Ashland said the bikes use about two-thirds of what’s left of the 500 block street right now. He said he sees harassment of some people.

“I saw a guy on a regular bike riding down the bike lane yelling at some tourist saying, ‘You know you are in the bike lane,’ and she wasn’t. She was actually in the walking side, up against the pedlet,” Ashland said. “I was like, ‘You know this is a pedestrian-centered promenade, and you have to yield to her.'”

He said the guy blew him off and rode away.

Ashland, however, is not a proponent of opening downtown State Street to vehicles.

“I just don’t know why there would be more value with a car driving by,” Ashland said. “If they could park, I get it, but they never parked. No one ever parked. That’s one of the things I think about this argument that is funny. No one ever parked on State Street.”

He said he doesn’t understand how more vehicles leads to more retail sales.

Ashland also weighs in on Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse, of whom he has long been a critic.

Ashland has decades of experience working downtown. He has been active since before the COVID-19 pandemic, calling on the city to provide more law enforcement services downtown. He has advocated for more outdoor dining and supports the parklet sidewalk extenders on State Street.

He supports more housing downtown, the addition of a green belt to attract people, and creating a people-focused promenade, rather than something that focuses on vehicles and bicycles.

Check out the episode by clicking on the YouTube link above.

Joshua Molina is a journalist and college instructor who interviews a wide variety of people on the issues of education, housing, politics, culture and business. He is a former reporter at the San Jose Mercury News. He also teaches at a community college. Visit SantaBarbaraTalks.com to sign up for his newsletter and make a contribution to this individually owned podcast.