CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

Back Bay Commuter

November 25th, 2009

A positive improvement for Newport Beach bicycling has been the NBPD has stopped driving through the Back Bay shared-use roadway at night with their headlights turned off and speeding despite UCI bicycle commuters. In one incident, the police officer did not even notice me in the foggy conditions. On another night, a commanding officer’s SUV was audacious enough to take the right-angled curve before the parking lot without headlights. The most bold was a NBPD car coming around that same narrow blind curve going the wrong way and another car approaching. At other times, NBPD police cars sped past or approached my bicycle in the Back Bay. The practice apparently is an attempt to sneak up on drinking or pot-smoking cars in the parking lot at the Back Bay midpoint. I described the risky sleuth driving to Lieutenant Steve Shulman in a telephone call but there was no change during the next two years. The Orange County Sheriff Department now appears to be patrolling the Back Bay with a 9pm drive-through with their headlights on as well as a search light turned on and aimed at the bike lane. Commuting cyclists are grateful that the Task Force is evaluating bicycle safety.

Grateful Cyclist

November 29th, 2009

The bus driver of OCTA on Route 79 has to be recognized for bicycle safety on Saturday Nov 27th at about 5:00 pm for the right turn from San Joaquin to northbound Jamboree Road. The Route 79 bus pulled up along side as I was pressing the bicycle button to go across. There were no cars, and I knew from past experience that the bicycle button has been disconnected. NBPD cars park in the gas station to chase bicyclists and concoct CVC 21453 moving vehicle citations. When the traffic light turned green, the OCTA bus driver of Route 79 let me go ahead. The safety issue was that I only had ten seconds to go across the eight-lanes of Jamboree because the bicycle button does not work and the signal is timed for five seconds with one car and about double for two cars. I would have never made it across if the bus went first. The dysfunctional bicycle button is a hazard to cyclists going across to enter the Back Bay from Newport Coast. And bicycle commuters returning home to UCI have a dangerous left turn with the short signal timing and cars making a right turn on the red.

Neighborhood Bicyclist

November 29th, 2009

Instead of encouraging bicycles in the school areas of Newport Beach, curtailment might be needed when crossing guards are not present. The Eastbluff Drive is an alternate arterial as Jamboree has become like a crowded freeway. I counted 17 cars going east in three minutes during sunset last Monday at the stop sign by Corona del Mar high school. The new Nordstrom’s in Fashion Island will bolster both car traffic as well as city tax revenue. Will neighborhood bicycling be the loser as Newport Beach aims to be a mega-shopping destination?

CORONA DEL MAR TODAY » CdM Could Get Experimental Bicycle “Sharrows”

December 1st, 2009

[...] our earlier stories about the task force here, here and [...]