CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

Council Unanimously Approves Bike Fund, Ride Waivers

In a quick, unanimous decision, the Newport Beach City Council on Tuesday approved a Bike Safety Improvement Fund and also waived fees associated with a scheduled Oct. 28 Memorial Bike Ride.

The improvement fund would use city funds, including grant money, in a 3:1 ratio to match private donations up to $450,000. The total fund could reach $600,000.

Corona del Mar resident Laura Curran attended the Council meeting and said that city should do even more.

“A $450,000 fund, I hope, is the beginning of something and not the end,” she said, describing the amount as “laudable but insufficient.”

“It really represents a gesture by citizens to try get some momentum around a topic they feel strongly about,” she said. She also said the city needed synchronized lights and dedicated pathways for bikes and pedestrians.

“Newport Beach likes to call itself a world class city,” she said, adding that other world class cities had plans to make cyclists and pedestrians safe.

April Morris, who is helping to organize the Oct. 28 Memorial Ride, said that more than $18,700 has been donated so far, including some one-dollar donations from children. The ride will begin at 8 a.m. near Whole Foods in Fashion Island and will honor Sarah Leaf, who was killed on Sept. 14 at East Coast Highway and Bayside Drive, and Catherine Campion-Ritz, who was killed the next day by a hit-and-run truck driver who struck her on Newport Coast Drive.

The City Council voted to waive up to $10,000 in fees associated with the ride.