Two reporters were trying to get to Qualcomm Stadium through heavy traffic in Mission Valley on Friday night and decided the bike lane was the perfect detour to do so.
The San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting that Peter King, a respected NFL journalist and fellow reporter Jenny Vrentas were driving down Mission Valley Drive amid the heavy traffic that ususally accompanies a Charger game.
The gridlock was so tight that Vrentas, who was driving at the time, decided to utilize a bike lane instead of waiting her turn in the string of cars.
King thought that posting a tweet of the incident would be amusing saying, “I told driver @JennyVrentas to get to Qualcomm as fast as she could. I have no comment on this.”
After the tweet was posted, many in San Diego blasted the reporter for being careless.
"This is not right. A human being could have been on a bike in that bike lane. A human with a family." - @bicyclebrian
"Awful judgement on both of you. Five cyclists have been killed in San Diego this year due to moves like this." - @themunson
"Don't worry about it, Peter. Hard not to ride in a bike lane in San Diego. It's all we have. City has lost its mind." - @sdutCanepa
Twitter users then re-tweeted the image including the San Diego Police Department's hastag:
"Please ticket."- @cthedrick
"I assume a citation is in order, as driver is known?" - @alexanderbakst
To which the police responded:
"This is not okay. Plan ahead and leave early for the next @Chargers game. #stayclassysandiego" - @SanDiegoPD
King eventually apologized for the incident saying in another tweet, "Jenny had no role in this. It’s on me. My apologies for it."
San Diego has been trying to become more bycycle friendly. The San Diego Bike Coalition are involved in several projects that would allow more bike lanes on city streets.
One such project is the Uptown Regional Bikeway Project which proposes adding connections between Hillcrest and Bankers Hill.
The project would also like to create a connection between Hillcrest and Mission Valley.
