Editor’s Note: Pete van Nuys wrote this opinion editorial in response to a string of accidents in which cars struck cyclists this month in San Clemente, Seal Beach and Newport Beach.
Recent deaths in Newport Beach have rallied residents and promoted action by officials many consider long overdue. Newport knows it has a problem. But residents in other towns shouldn't feel too smug ― the trends that challenge Newport are headed your way.
First, bicycle use is increasing. Aging Baby Boomers who haven't ridden in years may wonder why, in Orange County of all places, people are discovering bikes. Reasons include:
Teenagers and young adults aren't as car crazy as previous generations. License restrictions are tougher. The cost of insurance is higher. More young people are unemployed and car payments suck up money most would rather spend on social media, Iphones, and gaming.
Most trips are within 2 miles of home. People get it: short trips are hard on their cars; it's often as fast to let the car rest in the garage and bike those errands.
Bicycling is fun. OC's weather is great, the exercise makes people feel good and good about themselves. And, oh yeah, they're saving money while they're at it.
Second, car traffic is worse. It's not your imagination; even in this recession traffic delay, poor road maintenance, and the lengthening "rush hour" increase driver frustration. (Just imagine how bad it will be when more people get back to work.) Ironically, Newport Beach's challenge is made worse because their streets are wider, traffic runs faster, and motorists' sense of entitlement seems greater there than other OC cities.
Mix more bikes with more frustrated drivers and conflicts seem inevitable as if drivers and cyclists were separate warring tribes. But they're not. And dissolving this tribalism is central to resolving the conflict.
There are no Motorists. There are no Bicyclists. We're all just taxpaying residents who make daily mode decisions. Every cyclist I know is a licensed driver; all have cars with fuel in their tanks and pay the same gas taxes as everyone else. Most own homes and pay property, state, and federal income taxes, and these taxes fund the lion's share of road construction and maintenance. Cyclists are fully vested road users with the same rights and rules as everyone else.
Sharing space with a growing number of bicyclists is the new reality. That's a bitter fact for the hopelessly motor-headed, but focusing on the upside should help:
1.) There's no place in OC, California, or America where congestion is caused by bicycles. Every bicycle is literally One Less Car. One less competing with you on the metered on ramp, for a parking space at the mall, for a place in the cue to drop Junior at school.
2.) Bicycling helps people stay healthy and healthy people keep medial costs down.
3.) Bikes are good for business. Bicycle friendly downtowns increase patronage and profits for local businesses-- that's a proven fact.
The sweetest deal is, you reap these benefits whether you bicycle or not. All you have to do is control your car and not run over your fellow citizens. Is that really too much to ask?
Pete van Nuys is the Executive Director of the Orange County Bicycle Coalition.
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK IN THE COMMENTS
What is the key to a safer co-existence between cyclists and drivers?
Educated bicyclists avoid those hazards by riding in the center of the lane adjacent the parked cars. Motorists behave the same way. They drive away from parked cars so they'll clear an unexpected opening door. With that in mind, groups of bicyclists often choose to ride several abreast to be courteous to motorists behind them. Here's why that matters to motorists: Imagine 12 bicyclists riding single file, each bicyclist requiring about 12 linear feet minimum. That puts the motorist at least 144 feet behind them. If those same bicyclists ride 4 abreast, then they consume only 36 linear feet of roadway, which is safer and more efficient for everyone. Here's a page with several professional videos demonstrating why and how bicyclists should ride to ensure their own safety while complying with the vehicle code: http://www.youtube.com/user/CyclistLorax
If cyclists are using the "number two" lane, just signal, move into the number one lane ------------ these are CAR lanes----do you see cars driving in BIKE LANES____U R an idiot !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
see this crap alllll the time all over Newport beach !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Newport Beach police are doing their due diligence to investigate the collision. Let's withhold opinion until they release their report.
I live near, and pass by PCH/Bayside at least twice daily---Bikers are ALWAYS going south on PCH without stopping OR looking---It is a RIGHT TURN LANE only---VERRRY surprised not MORE accidents there---If I am riding a bike--I STOP at that intersection----
However, many of these weekend cyclist groups do not obey the traffic laws and endanger themselves. I have seen packs run through stop signs and red lights, and ride in the wrong lane towards oncoming traffic because the pack is grouped to tightly. If you want motorists to "share the road" then you all need to start obeying the traffic laws for everyone's safety.
When a bicyclist leaves that improperly striped Class 2 bike lane to avoid the door zone, motorists often get angry with the bicyclist. The motorists want the bicyclist to get out of their way, which they perceive--understandably, but unjustifiably--as an exclusive right to the travel lane. The solution is education by all concerned, particularly the public works official whose roadway designs created a set of expectations in the minds of the users of the system. Those expectations lead to conflicts, physical, psychological, and confrontational, that compromise public safety. It doesn't have to be that way. Long Beach is leading the way for safe, harmonious integration of bicycles and vehicles with their green sharrowed lane on 2nd St. in Belmont Shore. I arranged a bicycle tour of that City for San Clemente's City Council, planning and public works officials. It was a resounding success. Read about it here: http://sanclemente.patch.com/blog_posts/opinion-sc-council-sharrows-the-road-in-long-beach
Last week, a bicyclist blew through a stop sign on S. Ola Vista and collided with a vehicle. She was badly injured, but will life to ride--hopefully more safely--another day. I wrote a comment after the OC Register article, advocating for compliance with the Vehicle Code. Additionally, our local Sheriff's office contacted me to ask that I notify bicycle groups of increased enforcement in the area. That kind of collaborative effort will, hopefully, remind everyone to navigate the roadways legally. A friend of mine told me yesterday that he was ticketed for cruising through a stop sign at Palizada/N. Ola Vista while driving his car. He was upset at the time, but upon further reflection, he was glad he got a ticket and glad the police were doing their job to keep the roadways safe. He'll go to traffic school and turn the ticket into a learning experience. I wish everyone had such a healthy attitude. If you'd like to read the OC Register article, here's the link: http://www.ocregister.com/news/san-372551-clemente-intersection.html
I'm not surprised. I think it would be devastating as a motorist to accidentally hit and injure another person, even if you weren't at fault.
By riding against the flow of vehicular traffic while on the sidewalk, a bicyclist is approaching an intersection or a driveway from the drivers' right side. Drivers instinctively look to the left for oncoming vehicular traffic. Rarely do they approach the intersection/driveway and looking right. So, if the bicyclist leaves the sidewalk to cross a road or driveway without coming to a complete stop to look in all directions for cross traffic, then there is increased risk of a collision. That is one of the primary causes of children being hit while bicycling. Child cyclists and uneducated adults, too, don't perceive the driveways as intersections. They don't understand the look-left-first dynamic. And that one, highly ingrained mistake costs lives. It's important that parents understand that so they can teach their kids how to be safe bicyclists. I wrote a recent Speaking of Spokes Blog about the need for parents to teach kids to ride safely. Read:"The Kid, The Bike, and The Guardian Angel" here: http://sanclemente.patch.com/blog_posts/the-kid-the-bike-and-the-guardian-angel Please be safe, everyone.
Shelly--REALLY ???? when professionals race--the streets are closed to cars---except for support teams and tv crews----These friggin weekend warriors are all bunched up---passing each other--colliding---on streets PACKED with cars ?? you are probably one of the bafoons ????
This being said; cycling is all about efficiency. Humans neither store or produce enough energy to 'waste 'it at stop-signs / lights, or this is the image the majority of cyclists seem to project. Once you spend all that effort to 'get up to speed', I'd guess it makes no sense to waste energy by using the brakes to generate heat. In a race situation, this may be so, but not for an enjoyable ride on open streets.
250 lbs. vs. 2 tons (4,503 lbs). 20 mph vs. 50-60 mph. Do the math. It ain't pretty. Even motocyclists in OC already know damn well that a 15 minute weekend ride to meet friends for some coffee is a death-defying feed with hundreds of speeding, cell-phone blabbing, texting, soccer mom cagers on the road. Just stay in your lane, obey the traffic rules like everybody else and we might all survive.
I'm not saying motorists should be inattentive. I'm just saying I can understand why some get confused when they see bicyclists on the sidewalk and then crossing streets on crosswalks with pedestrians.
On 2nd St. in Belmont Shore, the City of Long Beach has creatively solved their sidewalk pedestrian/bicycle conflicts. The roadway was inhospitable to most bicyclists, who perceived it to be unsafe. So, they rode on the sidewalk, endangering pedestrians. The City addressed the issue by installing the green, sharrowed lane down the center of the right lane in both directions. Almost instantly (I believe the green lane was installed overnight) the roadway culture changed from an aggressive environment filled with conflict and competition for position to one that fully and harmoniously integrates bicycles with cars. Bicyclists ride out of the door zone, properly in the effective lane of travel. They don't ride on the sidewalk in significant numbers. Motorists who want to exceed bicyclists' speed calmly move to the left and courteously pass them. It's amazing how well that works, but it does. With one simple and inexpensive change to the infrastructure, the roadway culture was shifted from vehicular-dominant to multimodal. 40,000 avg. daily car trips share the roadway with 1,000 bicyclists daily.
21650(g) This section does not prohibit the operation of bicycles . . . along any crosswalk . . . where the operation is not otherwise prohibited by this code or local ordinance. 21456.3 An operator of a bicycle, including one turning, shall yield the right-of-way to other traffic and to pedestrians lawfully within the intersection or an adjacent crosswalk.
IMO, I find road bikers to be arrogant, and they seem to have this "entitlement" attitude, that they own the road because they are on a bike, and you are in a vehicle. I can only speak from my own personal encounters. A few examples are packs of riders taking up the bike lane, and at the same time, spilling halfway into the roadway. This may be legal, but is completely foolish, and unsafe. Then when you pass them, they get all bent out of shape. Another example is packs of riders bunched up in the bike lanes, then suddenly one spills into the roadway to jockey for a better position. Again, may be legal, but completely unsafe. .......... Continued below..
Last example, a groupe of rides on a two lane road, that are bunched up and taking up a roadway that doesn't have a bike lane, and they are impeding traffic...and refuse to move to the side so that the vehicles can pass. If I was to do this in my car, and impede the flow off traffic because i was not doing the legal speed limit, I could be sighted. I don't ever want to injure a cyclist, and i don't like reading about car -v- cyclist accidents. BUT it does piss me off when the above scenarios occur, because the "cyclist puts ME" into a dangerous situation, by there choice, not mine, and I am the one who most likely will face the legal consequences. JMO These situation happen all the time, and puts everyone at risk, The riders may have the protection of the law, but they will come out on this short end of the stick physically, if their action result in a accident.
You use a very reasonable tone to express the anger of motorists stuck behind bicyclists. Thank you for your restraint. But the root of the problem is engineering, roadway design, and public policy that has failed miserably to accommodate all roadway users. As a result, bicyclists and motorists compete with each other for space, often with tragic consequences. It doesn't have to be that way. Here's a link to my latest Speaking of Spokes blog post about the issue and how roadway efficiency can be increased by increasing safety for all. http://sanclemente.patch.com/blog_posts/its-not-about-money-its-about-leadership
This is also a good example about riding the wrong direction on a sidewalk, about what direction people look first, before they pull out...this time it was a pedestrian looking right, as he was about to jaywalk on a "one way" street, and would have not expected a rider coming from the wrong direction.
But when it comes to cyclist that ride the winding roads near where I live (two lane roads, with no passing zones), these lanes are not feasible. I believe this will always be an issue, as there is no simple solution. We just need to learn to respect each other. This is why I ride a mountain bike. :-) LOL
It seems the only lesson responsible cyclists can take from this is: Line up behind motor vehicles in front of you, and directly ahead of those behind you-- "control the lane"-- when making right hand turns. NEVER attempt to squeeze by right turning traffic. NEVER ride near the gutter. Motorheads, of course, will hate this advice. "Tough toenies."